Two years ago, Governor Reynolds and the governors of other midwestern states chose to use a clause in the Clean Air Act to allow them to have E15 available for sale all year-round. Once approved, this circumvented the EPA’s lack of movement on having the fuel available all year.
We all know how the story unfolded; the sixty-day deadline for EPA to rule on the petition took over 600 days, and when they cleared it earlier this year, they said the states couldn’t start until 2025, even though the infrastructure was ready to go now. Iowa lawmakers in Congress put forth an effort to force EPA to make it effective this year.
EPA buckled on Friday and announced it could go now already.
Supporters are excited for the change from EPA. Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig was among them.
Naig says that what he finds frustrating is that while these midwestern states understand the importance of having an alternative available at the pump, but we can’t get a permanent nation-wide solution.
We know that we had a solution in place back in 2019, but the D.C. District Court blocked the year-round option. Now, the EPA knows why it was overturned, so fix should be easy to do. But, as Secretary Naig mentions, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” However, it looks like the current incarnation of the EPA doesn’t have the will to make a nation-wide solution available.
We will talk more with Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig during the week.
