EPA’s E15 fuel sales restriction ends

With the expiration of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) volatility control season restrictions on Thursday, gasoline retailers will be permitted to sell E15 to conventional vehicles produced after 2000 without being required to purchase specially-tailored gasoline blendstock in order to continue sales.

“In 1989, EPA provided an RVP waiver to 10 percent ethanol blends, concluding there would be no air quality consequence and retailers would otherwise be unable to secure blendstocks for ethanol blending year-round,” Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen said. “Those same circumstances exist for E15. Indeed, as data submitted by RFA to EPA has shown, emissions from E15 are even lower than E10 and consumers would benefit all year long from a fuel that is higher octane, lower cost and cleaner.”

The RFA submitted a letter to the EPA in December calling for the elimination of regulatory barriers preventing the use of E15, but received a reply that the EPA did not have the authority to extend the waiver.

“We just want RVP parity for E15 and E10, so the marketplace and consumers have the freedom to choose the fuel that works best for them,” Dinneen said. “EPA’s continued inaction on the summertime volatility restrictions is stifling the growth of higher ethanol blends and incorrectly using that as justification to propose lower 2017 renewable fuel standard targets. We reiterate the need for EPA to address this issue.”