Ethanol and Ag groups charge EPA is not giving E-15 equal footing in the fuel market with E-10 and should correct the disparity right away. Farm and biofuel groups say E-15 is not granted the same 1-pount per square inch volatility waiver given E-10. So most retailers have to either stop selling E-15 during the summer, when ethanol evaporates more, or get a low vapor pressure gasoline blendstock and end up doing neither. American Farm Bureau’s Andrew Walmsley says “There’s a bunch of different options to get more fuel into the marketplace, and that was the original intent of Congress. The blend wall would always have been an issue. It hit a little sooner because of the downturn in the economy, but when RFS was signed into law in 2007 it was intended to put more renewable fuel into the fuel supply. We’ve reached that point and we’ve obviously seen resistance from our friends in the oil industry.”
The Renewable Fuels Association has written EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, imploring her to immediately address the disparity and put E-15 on an equal footing RFA argues EPA has effectively made E-15 a seasonal fuel and says there’s no legal or air quality reason to treat it differently than E-10. AFB’s Walmsley says the issue’s also hurting the Renewable Fuels Standard-intended to get more biofuels into the marketplace.
Source: NAFB News Service