EPA’s Plan for Ethanol Expands Market

The Trump administration has advanced a plan meant to expand the U.S. market for corn-based ethanol and place trading restrictions on credits that refiners use to prove they are using biofuel.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposal is a first step in fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash sales of gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol. Air pollution requirements currently block sales of that E15 gasoline from June 1 to Sept. 15 in areas where smog is a problem, and the EPA proposal would effectively lift those restrictions so it could be sold year-round.

At the same time, the administration is seeking to mollify some independent oil refiners that complain about volatile prices and possible hoarding of the credits required to prove they have satisfied annual biofuel blending quotas. The EPA is asking the public to weigh in on possible trading restrictions on those credits, known as Renewable Identification Numbers, despite warnings from large integrated oil companies and truck stops that changes in the thinly traded RINs market could do more harm than good.

Source: Farm Progress