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Year-round E15 left out of CR. What’s next?
Biofuels groups are going back to the drawing board after a year-round E15 solution was left out of the Continuing Resolution.
“To have it in the CR and then have it pulled out unceremoniously, people are pretty salty about it,” said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.
Shaw says there’s been no explanation why the E15 provision was scrapped after it was included in an initial government funding bill proposal. “As they slimmed it down through the process, there was no reason to pull out E15,” he said. “The E15 is a regulatory fix. It’s not a requirement, a mandate, an incentive or a subsidy. There was zero cost to the taxpayer.”
The funding bill passed by the House late Friday included $20.78 billion in disaster aid for farmers in both 2023 and 2024. It also allocated $10 billion in economic aid to farmers. It now needs to pass the Senate before heading to the President’s desk for signature.
Shaw tells Brownfield there’s now uncertainty whether the fuel will be allowed to be sold during the 2025 summer driving season. He says some oil-interest groups have petitioned the U.S. EPA to delay the implementation of a rule allowing eight Midwestern states to sell the fuel year-round.
“Under the Clean Air Act, they have that right to ask for a one-year delay,” he said. “We are nervous. It hasn’t been denied and it hasn’t been granted. We have until January 20th with the Biden administration to try to get them to deny that request.”
Shaw says IRFA would prefer a federal E15 solution rather than getting a state-by-state fix.
INTERVIEW: IRFA executive director Monte Shaw
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