President Trump said Thursday he is “very close” to finalizing a plan that will allow higher amounts of ethanol to be sold in gasoline year round.
“We are very close, I have to tell you, to pulling off something that you have been looking forward to for many years,” Trump said while speaking in Iowa on Thursday.
The policy that Iowa farmers and ethanol producers have been waiting for is a waiver by the Environmental Protection Agency to allow 15 percent ethanol fuel blends to be sold the entire year. Currently, E15 fuel blends are not allowed to be sold in the summer months because of the fuel’s high volatility. The current amount of ethanol in most gasoline sold in the country is 10 percent.
“That’s the 12-month E15 waiver,” Trump continued. He said the administration is “getting very close to doing that,” but said it is a “very complex process.”
Trump told the audience that he has “stuck with ethanol and most other candidates weren’t there.”
[Also read: Brett Kavanaugh could be good for ethanol]
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is a top proponent of issuing the waiver and has pressed both the White House and EPA for months to begin implementing the ethanol plan that Trump has promised.
Trump’s pledge to approve year-round sales of E15 fuel was reached in a deal between ethanol proponents and oil refiners this year. Blending higher amounts of ethanol would help lower the price of ethanol credits that many refiners have complained have been crushing their profits.
But former EPA chief Scott Pruitt began issuing a different sort of waiver to oil companies, allowing them to sidestep EPA requirements to blend ethanol under a mandatory federal program called the Renewable Fuel Standard.
Pruitt’s actions raised the ire of ethanol supporters, who are currently suing the EPA. Trump’s earlier deal also called for increasing the number of ethanol credits available to refiners by including those generated by ethanol exports. Typically, credits generated by ethanol exports are canceled and cannot be used by refiners, which raised problems for the ethanol industry.
The controversial plan later caused Trump to scrap the deal altogether.
However, Thursday’s comments by Trump signal that at least part of the prior deal is back on track.
The ethanol industry urged the White House to move ahead on the 15 percent ethanol waiver after the administration announced a $12 billion plan to help farmers deal with a trade fight between the U.S., China, and Europe. The fight is hurting crop sales.
“Farmers need relief now in the form of increased market opportunities,” and “E15 year-round would do that,” said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, representing ethanol producers.
