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New bill aims to formalize ethanol blend wall, cap blending at E10
New bill aims to formalize ethanol blend wall, cap blending at E10
Daniel Strohl on at 8:59 am
Photo by Michael Cote.
A bill introduced in Congress this week promises to roll back current ethanol blending requirements and may even curtail the spread of E15 through the nation’s fuel supply should it get enacted.
House Resolution 5180, titled the Food and Fuel Consumer Protection Act of 2016, calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to set annual ethanol blending volume requirements at no more than 9.7 percent of the country’s anticipated fuel consumption. In addition, if the EPA should fail to meet its annual deadlines for setting the volume requirements – as has happened in the past – the bill would have those numbers revert to the most recent year’s totals rather than remain undefined.
The 9.7 percent figure cited in the bill would effectively formalize the ethanol blend wall, the theoretical maximum amount of ethanol the U.S. fuel supply can tolerate. Observers had pegged the blend wall at 10 percent since the Renewable Fuel Standard was enacted as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. However, when the EPA finalized its ethanol requirement numbers for 2016 late last year, calling for 18.11 billion gallons of ethanol to be added to the fuel supply, it broke through the blend wall for the first time in history, raising the percentage to 10.1 percent.
....
Ethanol advocates spoke out in opposition to the bill, claiming that the reasoning behind the bill depends on “often debunked claims.” Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, noted that “this bill would gut the RFS” though he did not refute Flores’s claim that ethanol blended into fuel harms older vehicle engines. ... Introduced on Tuesday by Flores, Vermont Representative Peter Welch, Virginia Representative Bob Goodlatte and California Representative Jim Costa, the bill has since been sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. ... Other legislation intended to restrict the sale of E15, including Goodlatte’s RFS Reform Act of 2015, has either stalled in Congress or been knocked down.
Daniel Strohl on at 8:59 am
Photo by Michael Cote.
A bill introduced in Congress this week promises to roll back current ethanol blending requirements and may even curtail the spread of E15 through the nation’s fuel supply should it get enacted.
House Resolution 5180, titled the Food and Fuel Consumer Protection Act of 2016, calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to set annual ethanol blending volume requirements at no more than 9.7 percent of the country’s anticipated fuel consumption. In addition, if the EPA should fail to meet its annual deadlines for setting the volume requirements – as has happened in the past – the bill would have those numbers revert to the most recent year’s totals rather than remain undefined.
The 9.7 percent figure cited in the bill would effectively formalize the ethanol blend wall, the theoretical maximum amount of ethanol the U.S. fuel supply can tolerate. Observers had pegged the blend wall at 10 percent since the Renewable Fuel Standard was enacted as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. However, when the EPA finalized its ethanol requirement numbers for 2016 late last year, calling for 18.11 billion gallons of ethanol to be added to the fuel supply, it broke through the blend wall for the first time in history, raising the percentage to 10.1 percent.
....
Ethanol advocates spoke out in opposition to the bill, claiming that the reasoning behind the bill depends on “often debunked claims.” Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, noted that “this bill would gut the RFS” though he did not refute Flores’s claim that ethanol blended into fuel harms older vehicle engines. ... Introduced on Tuesday by Flores, Vermont Representative Peter Welch, Virginia Representative Bob Goodlatte and California Representative Jim Costa, the bill has since been sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. ... Other legislation intended to restrict the sale of E15, including Goodlatte’s RFS Reform Act of 2015, has either stalled in Congress or been knocked down.