Farm and Biofuel Groups Sue EPA Over Lost Gallons

Cindy Zimmerman

A coalition of biofuel and agriculture groups have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to change its regulations to “account for lost volumes of renewable fuel resulting from the unprecedented number of retroactive small refinery exemptions from Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) obligations recently granted by EPA.” The petitioners are the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), Growth Energy (Growth), National Biodiesel Board (NBB), National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and National Farmers Union (NFU).

This petition comes days after several ethanol and farm groups challenged three specific small refinery exemptions granted by EPA. While the lawsuit in the Tenth Circuit challenged those exemptions as wrongly decided, this petition to EPA seeks a broader, forward-looking remedy to account for the collective lost volumes caused by the unprecedented number of retroactive small refinery exemptions.

The existing regulation for calculating the annual percentage of renewable fuels to be blended into transportation fuel does not provide a means to “true up” the annual standards for any retroactive small refinery exemptions, i.e., exemptions granted after the renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for that year have been finalized. As a result, any volumes covered by such exemptions are lost.

But EPA’s continued use of its regulation in the face of its recently and greatly expanded use of retroactive small refinery exemptions is now arbitrary and capricious. News reports within the last 60 days reveal a flood of more than two dozen retroactive small refinery hardship exemptions have already been granted this year.

ACE, Ag group, BIO, Biodiesel, corn, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Growth Energy, NBB, NCGA, NFU, RFA, RFS

Pennsylvania Retailer to Sell E15

Cindy Zimmerman

A Pennsylvania-based fuel retailer plans to start selling 15% ethanol fuel at seven locations in three states.

Growth Energy has announced that Rutter’s convenience store chain will begin selling E15 in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

“The success of Prime the Pump in opening the marketplace for E15 has opened the doors for more and more innovative retailers to offer their customers the E15 choice,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “We are proud to welcome Rutter’s to the ever-growing E15 retailer family and look forward to giving even more American drivers an engine smart and earth kind fuel choice with cleaner burning E15.”

Rutter’s joins Casey’s, Cenex, Family Express, Holiday, Kum & Go, Kwik Trip, MAPCO, Minnoco, Murphy USA, Protec Fuel, QuikTrip, RaceTrac, Sheetz, and Thorntons in offering E15 at nearly 1,400 stations across 30 states.

“At Rutter’s we take pride in in giving our customers the best choices whether in-store or at the fuel pump and we’re excited to be expanding our offerings with E15,” said Rutter’s President and CEO, Scott Hartman. “We look forward to continuing to work with Growth Energy to maximize our advantage with E15 while providing our customers with greater choice and value at the pump.”

To find their nearest E15 stations, Rutter’s customers can go to GetBiofuel.com.

E15, Ethanol, Growth Energy, Retailers

Poll: 80% Say E15 Should be Sold Year Round

Cindy Zimmerman

As 15% ethanol fuel became unavailable June 1, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) released a new poll that shows American consumers are frustrated by the lack of choice that stems from the summertime prohibition on E15.

In a recent poll of registered voters conducted by Morning Consult, almost 80 percent of respondents said they believe the federal government should allow E15 to be sold year-round. Despite the fact that President Trump committed his administration would approve year-round access of E15 and remove the “unnecessary and ridiculous” regulation, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has yet to act on the President’s commitment, meaning another summer driving season without consumers having that choice.

“It’s time for EPA to follow the law and the direction of the president. It’s time for EPA to create biofuel demand by eliminating this antiquated regulatory barrier and empower consumers to make the fuel choices that are best for their cars and wallets,” said RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen.

Dinneen also penned an op-ed for The Hill last week on the topic.

In 2011, EPA approved the use of E15 in 2001 and newer vehicles, but the agency did not allow E15 to benefit from the 1-pound per square inch (psi) Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) waiver that is available to E10 blends. As a result of this disparity, retailers in conventional gasoline areas would have to secure special “sub-RVP” gasoline blendstock in order to continue selling E15 during the EPA summer ozone control season. Such gasoline blendstock is generally unavailable in conventional gasoline areas and would be uneconomical to ship.

E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

Growth Energy Urges RVP Relief for Consumers

Cindy Zimmerman

As the Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) restriction on E15 sales goes into effect across most of the country today, Growth Energy notes the ban on the lower priced fuel comes at a time when gas prices are approaching a national average of $3 per gallon.

“Every summer, earth-friendly E15 is held to tougher standards than other fuels sold year-round, cutting off sales and imposing needless costs on retailers and consumers alike,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “The Environmental Protection Agency must act to fulfill President Trump’s promise to ‘unleash E15’ by cutting this arcane regulation – saving retailers millions of dollars in labeling costs and letting rural America succeed in the marketplace unhampered.”

E15 retailers face costs of up to $1.5 million dollars each year just to relabel pumps around RVP, while others markets are entirely shut off for consumers because retailers cannot adjust for these astronomical barriers.

“RVP relief now means lifting our rural economy out of the worst crisis in a generation, with farm income plunging to a 12-year low,” said Skor. “And it means putting our industry on the path to an additional 1.3 billion gallons of ethanol demand within five years.”

Through an ongoing digital advocacy campaign Growth Energy is mobilizing rural America to call on the Administration to follow through on President Trump’s promise to make E15 available year-round.

E15, Ethanol, Growth Energy

More Ethanol Demand Destruction from EPA

Cindy Zimmerman

The biofuels industry was disturbed to hear news reports this week that the Environmental Protection Agency is continuing to destruct demand for ethanol and corn with more “small refinery” exemptions.

Reuters reported that EPA created nearly $34 million worth of Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits and handed them over to HollyFrontier, along with an additional undisclosed amount of RINs to Sinclair Oil to make up for their small refiner RFS exemption requests that were rejected under the previous administration. In a statement to reporters, EPA said its actions were “narrow in scope,” and are consistent with the direction from the 10th Circuit Court, but Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen disagrees.

“The 10th Circuit Court’s decision in the Sinclair case did NOT give EPA license to approve any and all small refinery waiver requests independent of a demonstration of disproportionate economic hardship tied directly to the RFS,” said Dinneen. “Moreover, by retroactively granting RIN relief to highly profitable refineries, the Agency is now making a mockery of the RFS and the President’s oft-stated commitment to a 15-billion-gallon RFS for conventional biofuels.”

RFA Executive Vice President Geoff Cooper detailed the continued demand destruction caused by EPA in a blog post this week, following up on his first analysis in early April. “Six weeks later, U.S. ethanol demand is even softer, RIN prices have fallen even further, and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s “Demand Destruction” campaign continues to roll on through the Heartland,” writes Cooper.

Cooper says the “tidal wave of small refiner exemptions has resulted in a flood of cheap RINs” reducing the use of ethanol.

Refiners who received an exemption in 2016 and/or 2017 are likely confident they’ll score another bail-out from 2018 compliance obligations. Or at worst, if they don’t get another exemption, they know they can meet their 2018 RFS obligation with the glut of dirt-cheap RINs that were recently dumped on the market (not to mention vintage 2018 RINs that were apparently created out of thin air by EPA as yet another giveaway to Sinclair and HollyFrontier).
Read Cooper’s post here.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA, RFS, RINS

E15 Gone Today Despite Trump Promises

Cindy Zimmerman

It’s June 1 and fuel retailers in the majority of the country who were selling 15% ethanol blends yesterday can’t today because of what President Trump calls “unnecessary and ridiculous” summertime E15 restrictions.

With the deadline approaching yesterday, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig joined the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) in calling on EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to use his “enforcement discretion” to allow summertime sales of E15.

“We call on Administrator Pruitt to take swift action to resolve this situation and while that process is playing out to provide guidance to retailers to allow for E15 access year round,” said Naig.

Listen to Naig and IRFA executive director Monte Shaw here: Iowa ag secretary and Iowa RFA E15 comments

Audio, E15, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Iowa RFA

Iowa Corn Fuels Travelers with Beef and E85

Cindy Zimmerman

Iowa Corn growers have hit the road to help summer travelers fill up with corn-fed beef and homegrown fuel.

The Iowa Corn-fed Summer Road Trip offers directions for travelers with flex-fuel vehicles to find fuel retailers offering E85 near the state’s best restaurants for corn-fed burgers and tenderloins. The map also includes some of Iowa’s summer corn-fed events, like the Iowa Corn 300 on July 8.

While gas prices are expected to hit four-year highs this summer, ethanol is helping to offset higher prices, and 10 percent ethanol blends (E10) alone could save consumers at least $39 billion this year, according to a Renewable Fuels Association analysis. The current Des Moines Terminal/Rack Prices are $2.16 for E10 and E85 is priced at $1.76 per gallon.

corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Ethanol Coalition Suing EPA Over Refinery Waivers

Cindy Zimmerman

A coalition of farm and ethanol organizations has filed a lawsuit over the Environmental Protection Agency’s “secretive small refinery exemptions.”

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) and National Farmers Union (NFU), with support of Farmers Union Enterprises, filed the suit late Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit to challenge several waivers from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) EPA granted to profitable refining companies.

The petitioners are challenging three EPA decisions, made under unusually clandestine proceedings, to exempt refineries in Wynnewood, Oklahoma; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Woods Cross, Utah from the RFS requirements of the Clean Air Act. The Wynnewood refinery is owned by Wynnewood Refining Company, a subsidiary of CVR Energy, and the Cheyenne and Woods Cross refineries are owned by Holly Frontier Corporation. The companies have since estimated in financial disclosures that the exemptions have saved them a collective $170 million in compliance costs.

“America’s corn farmers, who are expecting their fifth consecutive year of low commodity prices and who are experiencing the lowest net farm incomes since 2006, understand economic challenges. When refineries are reporting profit increases and repurchasing stock shares, we expect EPA to explain why these refineries were granted exemptions from their RFS volume obligations,” says NCGA president Kevin Skunes.

The petition also notes that EPA has consistently rejected all attempts to bring greater transparency to the small refinery exemption extension process. EPA has refused to provide even the most basic information requested in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from RFA and other parties. More surprisingly, the Agency has also ignored demands from members of Congress for the same essential facts.

ACE, corn, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, NCGA, NFU, RFA

Ethanol Report on Biker and Boater Education

Cindy Zimmerman

A custom-made motorcycle will be the centerpiece of a new educational campaign by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) to inform consumers about the proper use of ethanol-blended fuels in boats, motorcycles, and other small engines.

RFA has partnered with American Chopper‘s Paul Teutul Junior to design a custom bike that will be unveiled on June 11 and be part of the RFA promotion at the 2018 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

The Sturgis Buffalo Chip Campground had its own custom bike unveiled live on the May 28 show. It was also revealed that the bike will be auctioned off at the 11th Annual Legends Ride®, a charity event that is part of the Sturgis rally and co-sponsored by RFA.

In this Ethanol Report, RFA Vice President of Industry Relations Robert White talks about how they will be using the custom motorcycle, Sturgis and other opportunities this summer to set record straight on the use of ethanol blends in small and off-road engines.

Listen here: Ethanol Report on Biker and Boater Education

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Ethanol, Ethanol News, Ethanol Report, Motorcycle, RFA

Monarch Fueling Stations are Taking Off in Iowa

Cindy Zimmerman

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) last week announced three new Monarch Fueling Station Projects in the state, including the first retailer locations.

Star Energy FS announced intentions to establish Monarch Fueling Stations at locations in Gowrie, Rockwell City, and Manson. The monarch habitats will span anywhere from over a quarter of an acre to two acres, depending on the location. Seeding is expected to take place within the next month. Star Energy FS is also looking at expanding the project to other locations in future years.

“We at Star Energy FS are excited to come alongside Iowa biofuels plants in this effort to help restore the population of the monarch butterfly,” said Jeff Manthei, general manager for Star Energy FS. “This seemed like a natural next step considering we already work closely with Iowa biofuels plants to offer blends of their excellent fuels.”

The ADM plant in Cedar Rapids, and Big River Resources plants near West Burlington and Dyersville, are the latest biofuel facilities to join the monarch fueling program.

ADM has selected five acres to transform into a Monarch Fueling Station which will be planted with a prairie grass and flower mixture, including milkweed plants, which monarchs need for laying eggs. The Big River Resources West Burlington project will span roughly 1.8 acres and the Dyersville project will be approximately one acre. Seeding is expected to take place this fall. Big River Resources may also consider establishing similar plots of monarch habitat at facilities outside of Iowa.

The Monarch Fueling Station Project was established by IRFA in partnership with the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium in December 2017.

Ethanol, Ethanol News