On February 17, five senators, led by Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt, asking him to address EPA’s volatility regulation, which makes it more difficult to sell ethanol blends above 10% year round. The senators asked the Administrator to extend the 1-psi RVP waiver to E15 and other higher ethanol blends “to eliminate this needless obstacle to consumer choice.” Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen had the following statement:
“We applaud Senator Ernst and the other senators for their leadership on this critical issue. The single most vexing issue facing the ethanol industry today is access to the consumer, access that has been denied by arcane rules from EPA that provide neither air quality nor consumer price benefit. On behalf of the members of the Renewable Fuels Association, I’d like to thank Senators Ernst, Grassley, Blunt, Roberts and Thune for their effort and add my voice to the growing thunder of those that seek higher octane, home-grown ethanol with savings at the pump.”
