WASHINGTON – Farm-country congressional supporters of E15, a gasoline fuel blend that contains 15% ethanol, scored an important victory Wednesday as the U.S. House approved a bill that would allow year-round sales of the fuel.
Co-sponsored by Reps. Michelle Fischbach, R-7th District; Brad Finstad, R-1st District; and Angie Craig, D-2nd District, the E15 bill was approved on a bipartisan 218-204 vote.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Craig, a long-time champion of year-round sales of E15.
Minnesota is the fourth-largest producer of ethanol in the nation with 18 plants, making E15 a major contributor to the Greater Minnesota economy and providing state and local governments with more than $30 million in tax revenues each year.
The divide in Congress over E15 does not break along party lines but has pitted farm state lawmakers against those whose districts or states are home to small refineries.
The lobbying for and against E15 was fierce and the split among GOP lawmakers over the issue prevented the blended fuel from being considered in the farm bill last month.
Opponents of year-round E15 sales said the bill approved by the House would make changes to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that would disqualify a lot of small refineries who can now opt out of the program.
Unlike major refineries, small independent refiners often do not own their own ethanol blending facilities and must buy expensive biofuel credits to meet RFS obligations. A higher E-15 mandate would increase these costs.
The RFS is a government mandate established in 2005 that requires increasing volumes of biofuels to be blended into gasoline and diesel every year.
The E15 bill would phase out the exemption from annual ethanol blending requirements and phase out that process by 2028, replacing it with new reduced compliance requirements for small refineries.
“This bill puts them out of business,” Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., said of her state’s small refineries.
During House debate on the bill, its opponents also said E15 allows vehicles fewer miles per gallon and produces smog-producing emissions during the warm summer months. That’s why many states do not allow the sales of E15 in the summer, although Minnesota and 21 other states do not have this restriction.
Supporters of the legislation argued that allowing national year-round E15 was a boon for struggling American farmers and for consumers who are paying ever-higher prices at the pump as a result of the Iran war.
“For too long, the farmers of western Minnesota, along with families and farmers across the country, have been subjected to frustrating and outdated regulations,” Fischbach said during debate on the legislation.
Craig called the bill “a win for consumers and a win for farmers.”
The National Corn Growers Association says that every year roughly 30% of field corn goes into fuel ethanol and that ethanol is “uniquely positioned to play a large role in the future of transportation fuels.”
The E-15 bill now goes to the U.S. Senate, where approval is not guaranteed.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, on Wednesday questioned the move to remove the E15 measure from the farm bill, where he said it had a better chance of getting through the U.S. Senate.
“It will be dead on arrival in the Senate,” predicted McGovern.
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