We cover many stories throughout the year, and obviously, some take up more of our time than others. Some stories develop for a year or more. Sometimes, those longer stories are unavoidable, like the Farm Bill. Those are the stories you follow for almost two years expecting a natural conclusion, only to have them kick the can for another year.
Another one of those stories that has had a timetable even longer than the Farm Bill in year-round E15.
I came to the network in 2018, and this battle was going on long before. In 2019, we finally achieved the final victory and got year-round E15. But then the District Court of DC pulled the rug out from under us, sided with Big Oil, and took that option away from us once again.
Back in the summer of 2022, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds led a bipartisan group of Midwest governors to petition the EPA under a provision of the Clean Air Act that would allow the states to use waivers that would allow for year-round E15 sales. By law, the EPA had 60 days to decide. We are now somewhere over 500 days, and still, we have heard nothing. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. We have heard a lot of excuses and double-talk. This is not just a political party situation; the EPA is doing this to Governors of their own party.
While the EPA shrugs its shoulders and acts completely ignorant and clueless, the push continues, both in the courts of law and in the courts of public opinion. How can an agency dedicated to promoting ecological responsibility continue to ignore the cleaner options available now for a big oil industry or an EV industry that will rely on a new power grid with an increased usage of fossil fuels to provide the energy to charge cars constantly?
Whatever the reason for the EPA’s silence, ignorance, or weaponized incompetence on this topic, the battle rages on. Groups like the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) are continuing to ramp up the fight to get the attention of the American people and the Administration in Washington.
Brian Jennings is CEO of ACE, and he says that their organization is following the lead of Midwestern governors, but they are getting frustrated with the Federal feet dragging.
Jennings said that this lack of action by the EPA is “unacceptable.”
Jennings says that the fight to bring back nationwide, year-round E15 has not waned at all.
While EPA’s new RFS numbers weren’t exactly anything to get excited about, Jennings has said that not everything that this Administration’s EPA has done is a step back for ethanol and biofuels. They have stood by their commitment to stop handing out small refinery waivers to big oil companies like Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters, as was the practice of the previous administration.
That again was Brian Jennings CEO of the American Coalition for Ethanol.
