President Trump wants to raise the amount of ethanol in gasoline allowed to be blended year-round from 10 to 15 percent, a proposal that critics of the nation’s Renewable Fuel Standard have vigorously opposed.
“We’re going to raise it up to 15 percent,” Trump said after meeting with lawmakers and governors from major farm states to talk about agriculture issues and trade.
“We’re going to go to 12 months, which makes a lot of farmers very happy,” he continued.
The ethanol industry and corn farmers want the Environmental Protection Agency to relax air quality standards that don’t allow 15 percent ethanol fuels to be blended during the summer.
Trump has entertained a number of ideas to overhaul the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard program to appease both oil refiners and ethanol producers. Refiners want a waiver that allows them to avoid having to buy expensive ethanol credit to comply with the program. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has represented the refiners in talks with Trump, has suggested that a cap be placed on the price of the credits in exchange for relaxing EPA air standards to allow year-round sales of 15 percent ethanol blends.
But it won’t happen all at once, Trump said. “We’ll go from eight months to 12 months,” he said. Trump said he will use the “transition period” to work out a deal that helps the refiners, “because we have to take care of our refineries.”
The change would come through the EPA, which would have to put out a formal rulemaking changing the fuel volatility standards.
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Trump gives ethanol industry huge victory by endorsing higher fuel blends https://t.co/v6GTevhku7 pic.twitter.com/ksq0eHMUYr
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 12, 2018
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