Posted on 10/08/2018 5:42:03 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
The White House on Monday rolled out a new plan that would allow higher blends of ethanol in vehicle fuels, amid concerns that the change could lead to more air pollution.
The administration’s memo calls to extend the sale of E15 -- consisting of 15 percent of ethanol blended into gasoline -- year round. The fuel was blocked between June 1 and Sept. 15, as science shows burning ethanol in warmer temperature leads to heightened ground-level ozone pollution and smog.
A senior White House official said the plan was part of President Trump’s free market plan.
“This action is basically specifically directed at increasing the supply of biofuels and providing consumer choice and inline with the president's approach to propping up the free market,” the official told reporters on a call.
“The President has repeatedly stated his support of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) program and thinks it’s good to have domestically created fuel here and think it will be good for the agriculture industry overall.”
Through the memo, the White House will ask the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to formally draft a regulation allowing for the use of E15 year-round. No formal text has yet been provided. The rule will go through a formal comment period, the official said.
An EPA spokesperson said the agency will follow the president’s direction “and proceed as expeditiously as practicable.”
“He is fulfilling his promise by providing clear policy direction that will expand opportunities for our nation’s farmers, provide certainty to our refiners and bolster the United States’ role as a biofuels powerhouse,” the spokesperson said.
But the plan is likely to hit a few major roadblocks. The EPA has concluded as recently as 2011 that it could not allow the use of E15 due to the air pollution restrictions regulated under the Clean Air Act. A number of outside environmentalist groups have additionally vowed to sue over any change to the fuel policy.
While ethanol is a renewable fuel thats increased usage could potentially offset the burning and mining of fossil fuels, a number of studies have found that burning the gas is not any cleaner, and in some instances more harmful.
“The limits exist in the Clean Air Act for a reason. Ethanol blended in gasoline does produce more pollutants that lead to smog than gasoline alone. So by increasing the amount from 10 percent to 15 percent, that breaks those limits that are in the Clean Air Act and could potentially lead to more ozone formation,” said David DeGennaro, agricultural policy specialist for the National Wildlife Federation.
The Senior White House official emphasized that the memo is focused on increasing the biofuel market and “isn’t directly related to climate change.”
The administration’s announcement comes a day after the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released a report that found the world needs to decrease emissions by 45 percent by 2030 or else the atmosphere could hit 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.
The report was conducted at the behest of negotiators for the Paris climate agreement who asked the IPCC to study what must be done in order to limit climate rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. The president announced he was pulling the United States out of the agreement last summer.
Trump’s move is championed by corn growers as it would likely expand the market of ethanol but opposed by representatives of the oil and gas industry. Trump made a promise during the Iowa Caucus that he would remove the restrictions on E15. He won the state’s Republican race.
In April, the president signaled that the change was imminent, telling reporters at the White House of gasoline blends, “We’re going to raise it up to 15 percent and raise it to a 12-month period.”
The change would essentially waive E15 from national vapor-pressure requirements under the Clean Air Act.
Additionally, the White House memo will direct EPA to consider other measures to help stabilize and make more transparent the Renewable identification Number (RIN) market.
Currently refiners and importers of natural gas must blend their fuels with ethanol before sales or purchase RINs sold on the market.
The administration’s RIN reform would include requiring public disclosure of RIN, limit the length of time that non refinery or importers can hold a RIN and improve compliance obligations on a more frequent basis.
Now that WE know what he's doing we can educate him.
He can always reverse course.
Ethanol isn't just hard on 2-cycle motors. It destroys them. Not even adding Stabil will help.
Now,they are pushing more use of E15 on us. Don’t they realize that anything over E10 ethanol content is NOT manufacturer-recommended in many vehicles currently on the road? I listen to the motor manufacturers before listening to the EPA.
The president isn’t stupid and understands the political landscape better than most people around here. If people listened to him, there’d be no such thing as a Senator Jones right now.
This is really bad. E15 is the worse thing for engines; especially in older cars, boats, RV’s, off road vehicles, and motorcycles. It also makes livestock more expensive because it makes corn more expensive. Probably makes booze and beer more expensive too because everyone is competing for the limited amount of corn.
We need a way to get through to the President to let him know what a bad idea this really is. Someone has fooled him by convincing him the farmers and Iowa (or wherever it’s grown) in general is better off.
Also the crap hurts gas mileage so it’s not helping anything pollution wise.
Yep. 4-cycle motors too. It’s death to rubber and plastic seals and so forth.
The majority of drivers won’t pay any attention to the ethanol labels on the pumps either.
At least not until their mechanic explains what happened to their vehicle.
ka-ching ka-ching!
Sounds like Iowa...
In fact you can produce petroleum fuel that burns completely in your vehicle and eliminates the emission of all major polltants. Trump has been suckered on this one.
Probably pressure from Grassley
Brilliant! Trump playing the farmers for the mid terms and then will change his mind.
“....a kiss to farmers who’ve been temporarily affected with tariffs ? Too soon to sway Iowa voters.”
Absolutely! You have to hold your base, and farmers are part of it. There will be time to fix this down the road. FWIW, I by clear unleaded fuel for my portable stuff.
VP sells it in 5 and 50 gallon containers and it lasts forever in both 2 and 4 cycle small engines.
Bad move.
Junk fuel.
Gotta replace the fuel pump module in the ford pickup every 70-80k miles cause there’s a little rubber ball that serves as the check valve in the fuel pressure regulator that shrinks in size over time due to exposure to ethanol. When the rubber ball shrinks it cause a leak in pressure. Cost of fuel pump module $180.
Save the corn for cows and people. They’re hungry.
As far as I know, they sell E85 all year long.
Turns out American farmers, i.e. American farm conglomerates are truly f’d up welfare whores.
I hope this is #FakeNews. The Hill can't be trusted as a source.
Gonna stop mandating it and merely allow it so it either lives or dies by merit?
It’s not fake news. There are multiple sources. And it’s why Trump is in Iowa tonight.
Trump needs to remove the mandate and allow consumers to decide. Me, I won’t put E15 in my car.
Well, maybe the President is wrong on this one, eh?
We elected Donald J. Trump because he was a patriot and a businessman, not a politician who sticks his finger in the political winds before making decisions. We don’t need another Bush. We need The Donald.
by the way, it is YOU who claims caving to the corporate farmers is to avoid some kind of blowback in the 2020 elections. We haven’t even gotten to the mid terms yet! This is conjecture on your part, so you explain yourself.
The old “we’re smarter than you so just shut up” doesn’t cut it. There is no justification for having any ethanol, mush less upping it to 15%.
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