One of the nation’s largest pipeline companies is now offering pre-blended E-15 at most of its terminals nationwide and at all of its facilities in Iowa.
Grant Menke, policy director at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, says the move by Magellan Midstream Partners will mean more E-15 is available to consumers.
“Magellan’s announcement is really a game-changer,” Menke says. “They will now make it easier than ever for retailers in Iowa and around the country to offer a higher-performing, lower-priced E-15 to motorists at 50 of its terminals, including all of the terminals in Iowa.”
The company has 11 Iowa terminals, located in the following cities: Bettendorf, Dubuque, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Garner, Iowa City, Mason City, Milford, Sioux City, Waterloo and Whiting. Menke says with the pre-blended option, retailers don’t have to have special “flex fuel” pumps in order to sell E-15.
Menke says, “If you don’t have a blender pump and you want to replace a lower-demand product with E-15, you’ll be able to go to the terminal and get the fuel and make that change without making a significant or huge infrastructure upgrade.” He says the next hurdle to overcome in order to get more E-15 to motorists is for the EPA to lift the Reid Vapor Pressure rule, or RVP, and let the fuel be offered all year.
“We saw that in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey where the summer RVP restriction on E-15 was ended a couple of weeks early,” Menke says. “E-15 can do that each and every summer on a permanent basis if if EPA takes action on that.”
E-15 is approved for all 2001 and newer vehicles. Menke says it has an 88-octane rating, increasing vehicle performance and reduces cancer-causing pollutants as well as greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions. Magellan has the longest pipeline system for refined products and L-P-Gs in the United States, extending about 9,700 miles from the Gulf Coast and covering Iowa and 14 other states across the central U.S.
(By Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton)