The executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuel Association says recent sales of E-15 and E-85 show the so-called “blend wall” does not exist. Monte Shaw says blender sales of all four blends of ethanol are on the rise, which includes E-10, E-15, E-30 and E-85.

“We talked to a number of retailers with blender pumps and on average, their average ethanol content they sell is about 25% ethanol, if you average all those blends out,” Shaw says. “That is well beyond E-10. That’s well beyond what’s called for in the Renewable Fuel Standard for years to come.”

Shaw says oil industry attacks on the Renewable Fuel Standard are unfounded because it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to do, promote the use of renewable fuels. “People want to gut the RFS saying they aren’t selling these fuels, that just turns the whole policy on its head,” Shaw says. “The whole point of the policy was that they aren’t selling these fuels and they should be because they’re cheaper, they’re higher octane, they’re cleaner burning, they’re domestically made.”

Shaw says the first month of sales of E-15 in Iowa showed six stations selling nearly 24,000 gallons of the fuel. He says that, along with higher blend sales, far exceeds the scheduled R-F-S levels.

(Reporting by, Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton)