The Environmental Protection Agency is months late in acting on a request by Midwest governors to lift summertime restrictions on E15 sales for their states.
Some six months or almost 180 days late, say the Attorneys General of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota, in their letter to EPA chief Michael Regan.
EPA, by law, was supposed to issue an E15 rule in response to the states’ governors by last summer and hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley blames the failure on energy politics; “Whether you have a Republican or Democrat Congress, you tend to have big oil infiltrating their ideas into the EPA and getting too much consideration.”
And what can the Midwest states do about it? Grassley; “Not much, I think except for us talking to people like you in the media, giving speeches on the floor of the United States Senate, calling up the director of EPA, and telling him, what in the heck’s wrong, here.”
But Renewable Fuels Association head Geoff Cooper hopes for a national legislative fix for summertime E15 sales; “But longer term, we still need a permanent solution to ensure that drivers can access E15 year-round.”
Expected House and Senate bills would supersede the Midwest governors’ request just for their states…and Cooper argues, help reach EPA’s proposed 15 billion gallon-plus ethanol use target. Almost 3,000 fueling stations now sell E15.
