The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) took offense at an ad recently run by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) in Morning Consult comparing the effects of year-round E15 vs refinery exemptions and what each means to the renewable fuels industry and consumers. As a way of “fact-checking” the RFA ad, AFPM wrote a blog post “scribbling things on Post-it Notes and marking up the ad with a red pen,” according to RFA in a response blog post.
There were very few facts in AFPM’s response, except one, which they got wrong. AFPM claimed the blend rate of ethanol has gone up each year. But the ethanol blend rate dropped from 10.13% in 2017 to 10.07% in 2018. Even more striking is that in January 2018 EIA had forecast that the blend rate would increase to 10.26% in 2018, which did not happen. The practical impact of the lower blend rate was a loss of hundreds of millions of gallons of ethanol demand.
RFA Communications Director Ken Colombini concludes simply, “Here’s a fact for AFPM: We stand by our ad.”