A handful of governors in oil-producing states are asking federal regulators to waive the requirement that ethanol be blended into gasoline.
The governors of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah and Wyoming say U.S. oil refineries face severe financial hardships due to economic shutdowns around the globe.
The American Coalition for Ethanol is urging the EPA to do the exact opposite of what the governors’ are asking and increase the mandated amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline. The CEO of Growth Energy says bowing to the oil industry and unraveling the Renewable Fuels Standard now would dim hopes of economic recovery in rural America.
The request from the oil-state governors is for a blanket exemption for all refineries. The ethanol industry recently won a legal battle over waivers the EPA had granted to individual refineries. A federal court ruled the agency was not following the Renewable Fuels Standard rules and let too many refineries out of the requirement to blend ethanol into gasoline.