The Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency waiver for the use of E-15 ethanol blend for year-round use. President Joe Biden traveled to Iowa today to make the announcement.
Nebraska Ethanol Board Administrator Reid Wagner tells KLIN News, “The significance of the announcement is that we were heard on our need of higher blends here in the Midwest by providing a clean burning fuel but we are also able to have that opportunity to keep pricing reasonable, especially during tough times like this. We very much appreciate the issuing of an emergency waiver by the EPA.”
E-15 is typically not sold June 1st through September 15th due to concerns it contributed to smog. Wagner says, “That is simply because of a standard issues with the Clean Air Act. If you would have changed a couple words around it would have been allowed. E-15 was sidelined for those few months. Right now we know that ethanol reduces pricing at the pump and E-15 is a way to keep that cost going down even further by 5-cents to 10-cents and that is exactly what we need here.”
Nebraska is the number two ethanol producing state in the nation, second only to Iowa. Wagner says this waiver will not only provide a less expensive option at the pump but provides another good option for corn producers to send their crop.
The EPA is expected to issue the emergency waiver by June 1st.