ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday recommended approval of a petition from a group of Midwest governors to allow year-round sales of E15 in their states beginning in 2024.

Speaking at the Renewable Fuels Association's National Ethanol Conference, Ben Hengst, deputy director of EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality, delivered the news to ethanol industry officials, who were disappointed higher ethanol blend wouldn't receive an agency waiver in time to sell the fuel during this year's summer driving season.

"How does something that is supposed to take 90 days take two years to get implemented?" one conference attendee asked Hengst after his remarks to conference attendees. "I just don't understand how politics work, I guess."

Absent changes to the rule or other emergency actions, retailers won't be allowed to offer E15 from June 1 to Sept. 15 this year.

"We recognize that the petitions that came in requested an effective date such that the rule would be finalized for summer 2023 -- given where we are in the calendar, it was EPA's judgment that we simply cannot do that at this point," Hengst said. "I understand why there would be frustration here and it's unfortunate that it took as long as it did. But at this point, we are focused on the big picture, which is the fact that we got it out, and we'll move it as quickly as possible to the final rule stage."

Governors from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin in April 2022 petition EPA to remove the one-pound RVP waiver for summer gasoline-ethanol blended fuels.

The EPA proposed Wednesday an effective date of April 28, 2024.

"It is a recognition of where we are in the calendar, but it is also a recognition of the requirements needed in the fuel production and distribution system to make this change happen," Hengst said.

"While we're glad to see EPA is finally taking action to approve the governors' petition, we're frustrated and disappointed that the agency is proposing to kick the can on implementation until 2024," RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper said. "There is simply no justification for further delaying this action, which is already months overdue. By law, EPA should have finalized approval of the governors' petition more than seven months ago, which would have given the marketplace more than enough time to adjust and prepare for implementation this summer.

"But instead, under pressure from the oil industry, the White House ignored a statutory deadline, sat on the proposal for months on end, and slow-rolled governors who acted in good faith to ensure consumers would have the ability to chooser lower-cost E15 all year long."

"We are grateful to EPA Administrator [Michael] Regan for his steadfast efforts to preserve access to affordable, domestic biofuels, but we're disappointed that the EPA's proposal doesn't provide a fix for 2023 and the coming summer driving season," Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor said in a release.

"Failing to offer a fix for 2023 would be a significant setback for E15 availability. While we appreciate parts of EPA's proposal, without similar treatment for E15 this year, the benefits of such treatment could be undermined or negated completely as retailers stop selling this lower-cost, lower-carbon fuel option."

Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw called it "unconscionable" that Midwestern drivers and fuel retailers "will be the ones to pay the price for the illegal delay by the Biden EPA to finalize these rules."

"The governors' authority is not in question. The air quality science is not in question. There is no question the EPA failed to meet the statutory deadline. Now they are using their own tardiness to justify putting off the E15 fix until 2024, leaving Midwest consumers to pay 15 cents per gallon or more than necessary."


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--Reporting by Jordan Godwin, jgodwin@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-01-23 1036ET