Corn state senators are expected to press President Trump today to support the year-round sale of E15 gasoline at a White House meeting, while oil state senators will be seeking a cap on the price of RINs. Neither side in the tussle over the Renewable Fuel Standard knows what to expect. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said he will remind Trump that he supported corn ethanol as a candidate and ask him to make the EPA live up to those promises.
Trump has met with Oil Patch and Corn Belt senators intermittently since last fall over potential changes to the RFS without reaching a resolution. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has argued for a price cap on so-called RINs as the quid pro quo for ending the EPA ban on the summertime sale of E15, a 15 percent blend of ethanol into gasoline. RINs are credits refiners buy to comply with the RFS if they do not blend enough ethanol to meet the target for biofuel use, which is 15 billion gallons this year.
“I hope we can get some finality on the vapor rule,” said Grassley during an AgriTalk interview, referring to an EPA regulation that says E15 will evaporate during hot weather and add to ozone pollution. The ethanol industry says E15 has similar characteristics to E10, the traditional blend, and ought to be allowed for sale from May 1 to Sept. 15, when its sale is currently prohibited.
Cruz was invited to the White House meeting, along with Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and both Iowa senators, Grassley and Joni Ernst. Petroleum and biofuels sources said it was unclear if the meeting would result in executive action. “We will see,” said one.
Trump backed the year-round sale of E15 during an April 12 meeting with governors and lawmakers. He also said “we have to take care of our refineries” and that there would be a two-year transition period of some sort.
Cruz and Toomey said the bankruptcy of a Philadelphia refinery early this year was the result of high RIN prices. They see a RIN price cap as the solution, while farm state lawmakers say E15 is the answer because more ethanol would be used.
Effectively, there has been a standoff over E15 and the RIN cap for several weeks. The ethanol industry says the RFS is being undermined in the meantime by the EPA’s decision to grant “hardship” waivers to small refineries, exempting them from having to comply with the RFS. The ethanol industry says the waivers could reduce the ethanol mandate by more than a billion gallons this year.
“Refiners have received enough handouts,” said ethanol makers in full-page ads in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post. “Please reject demands for a cap on biofuels and help unleash rural growth by cutting the red tape holding back homegrown energy.” In addition, five national farm groups urged Trump to start the ball rolling on year-round E15 sales.