News
Energy and ag groups seek permanent year-round E15 fix
The American Petroleum Institute has joined renewable fuels groups calling on Congress to support legislation allowing year-round sales of E15.
“This is the first time we’ve ever had the oil industry voicing its support for a permanent solution,” said Geoff Cooper, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association.
Cooper tells Brownfield the group’s letter to Congressional leadership on Monday seeks a resolution to make fuel regulations more consistent.
“It’s a no-brainer for retailers if they can sell the fuel year-round,” Cooper said. “This would be a huge benefit for them. That’s why we’ve seen the three leading associations representing the retail sector also signing onto this letter and lending their support to this effort.”
Republican US Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa says a petroleum group signing onto the letter speaks volumes.
“I think that institute speaks for the whole industry,” Grassley said in a press call with farm reporters Tuesday morning. “If there was much disagreement within the industry, you wouldn’t have the (American Petroleum) Institute involved.”
Cooper says the issue needs to be resolved before May 1st.
Hello: My name is Carl L. McWilliams. I am a 74 year old sociologist and economic developer and I have been involved in renewable energy, disruptive technologies and regional/local economic development for over forty years.
Accordingly, what I am observing in this news article is an invent I knew was going to happen and here it is: The inevitable economic phenomenon of the formation of a “complex system” because of transportation fuels marketplace chaos. caused by the Biden administration’s intervention into the transportation fuels market. The economic agents of this “spontaneous order” are the ethanol industry, the petroleum industry and nine state governments who are now operating in a “spontaneous order” because the free market in transportation fuels is in chaos. The very fact that the petroleum industry is on board with E15 regulations and nine states also are awaiting a response from EPA on their petitions to allow year-round E15 sales in their states, including Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Ohio; indicates the transportation fuel market is unstable and thus a “spontaneous order” is the result as is reported in this article by BROWNFIELD:
But one very important fact is; the Biden Administration’s marketplace intervention has created a “regulatory arbitrage” and therefore is providing a “comparative advantage” to the biofuels industry. Which if properly exploited the ethanol industry could force a “creative destruction” upon the now emerging EV battery vehicles.
If the ethanol industry exploits the “regulatory arbitrage” and harnesses the “comparative advantage”; $Billions in new wealth will be created in the nine-state-region of the American ethanol industry that is regionalized in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Ohio.
Here is a Google Docs link to an unpublished working draft of my research as a social scientist on the economic modeling for transitioning the American ethanol industry into the carbon-net-zero-energy-infrastructure of THE THIRD WAVE:
Warm regards,
Carl L. McWilliams
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KOsd36mpOGRFpgrLsmNn0KNo7QwdIwgz9EZiQqVNkJ8/edit?usp=sharing