A legislative fix for year-round E-15 was recently dropped by lawmakers in the U.S. House from their government funding bill. Many ag leaders say they are disappointed with the decision in Congress.
“Frustration is another word you could use,” says Matt Frostic, First Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). He’s also a corn and soybean producer in Sanilac County, Michigan.
E-15—a fuel blend of up to 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline—generally cannot be sold during the summer driving season (June 1–September 15) because it does not meet gasoline Reid vapor pressure (RVP) requirements, which limit fuel volatility under the Clean Air Act (CAA).
After removing the fix for year-round E-15 from the House appropriations bill, lawmakers created a “Rural Energy Council” task force in order to draft another compromise bill that seeks to include input from the petroleum industry.
“We’re figuring out a new plan based on this task force—but we were told in the fall that if we were able to align with our ethanol groups and with the American Petroleum Institute (API) to come up with a bill that was amicable by all the organizations in the industry, that the White House would get their shoulder behind it and push it through this year. So, that’s what we did. For the first time in several years, we had alignment with a bill and with a policy that should have been a slam dunk for Congress to put through.”
He says the fix would be a “win-win” by providing savings for Americans at the fuel pump. It would also give a huge boost to 500,000 corn producers all across the U.S.
“It would bring a cheaper fuel to the gas station. In the Congressional budget, we’ve shown that it would also save $6 billion, so it was going to be a win all the way around for everybody. We put a full-court press on last week to try and get this through, and we still were stopped by some small oil refiners that are in key districts that were able to stop the legislation from advancing at the Rules Committee.”
Even though the EPA could provide another emergency fuel waiver later this year to extend the year-round sale of E-15, Frostic says that waiver would only apply to seven states: Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Frostic adds that now is the time for the ag industry to band together and show its support for year-round E-15 throughout all 50 states.
“We need our corn growers to be loud and call their Congressperson to not only support, but advocate for year-round E-15,” says Frostic. “If you’re involved in agriculture, we also need your help to get this message across to Congress.”
Frostic says a compromise bill from the task force is supposed to be ready by February 15 with a vote on Feb. 25.
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