E15 Waiver Allowing Year-Round Sales Expected This Week

A panel of industry leaders shed light on the anticipated E15 Waiver and RFS RIN reform provisions during the recent Fuels Institute Annual Meeting. Dawn Carlson, FUELIowa, urged leaders to help address the need for infrastructure funding for retailers updating dispensers and other equipment. Chris Bliley, Growth Energy, reported on their Prime the Pump campaign and USDA’s Biofuel Infrastructure Partnership (which have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in grant awards to retailers). Growth’s interests are in funding E15 at the largest retailer locations selling an average of 2.4 million gallons per year. David Cox, Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, said his sources on the Hill report a year-round waiver for E15 will be announced before June 1 along with one of the RIN reform measures proposed by EPA in a federal rulemaking proposal that received thousands of comments from interested stakeholders. The future of the biodiesel tax credit still hangs in limbo and the EPA continues to approve small refiner exemptions from the RFS. These policy uncertainties increase volatility in the marketplace, particularly where biofuels are concerned. Currently, there are 184 sites offering E15 in Iowa. Retailers in need of assistance with infrastructure upgrades in order to offer E15 can apply to the Iowa Renewable Fuel Infrastructure Program for cost-share grant funding, administered by the Department of Agriculture.