The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should permit 11% or 12% ethanol in gasoline if it cannot rule on an industry proposal to increase the blend wall to 15% by Dec. 1, said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). The comments by Sen. Grassley, who is perhaps the biggests supported of corn ethanol in the Congress, come amid reports that the EPA will extend the review period for E15 to conduct more tests, he added. Iowa accounts for roughly 26% of U.S. ethanol production, making it the country’s biggest manufacturer of the fuel, the state’s Renewable Fuels Association said.
According to a report in E&E today (subscription required), automakers are questioning the long-term durability issues. “We expect to have the answers in the next 12 months or so. And at that point, we would be comfortable,” Candace Wheeler of General Motors said yesterday at the InfoCast Cellulosic Biofuels Summit in Washington, D.C. The executive at GM (which sought Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection earlier this year!) said that given questions of “durability,” suggested EPA should consider delaying or rejecting E15 until they can be certain that all 240 million vehicles in the United States would run fine with E15.
Filed under: Biofuels, Blends, Ethanol | Tagged: Biofuels, E15, Ethanol, Grassley, RFS
