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The Environmental Protection Agency has put in place a plan to allow more ethanol into the country's gas supply on Tuesday, after a long wait by Cabinet members over the plan's schedule.
"In accordance with President Trump's guidelines, EPA is working to propose and finalize these changes by the summer driving season," said Andrew Wheeler, EPA Administrator.
The proposed regulations would sell 15% ethanol, including in summer. EPA has banned the sale of this high-ethanol fuel during the summer driving season, which begins June 1, due to its high volatility index, which can adversely affect engine performance and contribute to smog , especially in summer.
Trump promised the rule change last year to Iowa farmers and corn ethanol producers as part of a larger market with oil refiners. The agreement aims to address issues related to the national renewable fuel program, which requires ethanol and other biofuels to be blended in increasing amounts each year.
Wheeler wants to quickly gather comments on the rule to put it into effect before Memorial Day. He said he would hold a public hearing at the end of the month to begin the process.
The proposed measures announced Tuesday would also reduce the cost to refiners of complying with the EPA's renewable fuel program, which costs refiners each year hundreds of millions of dollars to meet the blending requirements of the EPA. ethanol in the country's gas supply.
The action proposed by the EPA will change the way credits that refiners must use to achieve their ethanol goals are bought and sold to prevent price manipulation.
Ethanol credit prices have fluctuated significantly in recent years, from a few cents to more than a dollar over a short period, which has led refiners to pay more each year to buy ethanol. in accordance with the Renewable Fuels Standard.
Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she was satisfied with the ethanol proposal, but would look more closely at the "ethanol credit" component of the EPA's proposed rule.
"It is imperative that EPAs create more transparency in the [ethanol credit] Ernst said in a statement that the Republican was one of the main blame for the abusive use of former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt to misappropriate renewable fuel waivers for refiners not to mix fuels. ethanol.
"I hope we have gone beyond the days of the blatant mismanagement of the former Pruitt administrator. [Renewable Fuel Standard] and the process of giving up, "said Ernst.
Wheeler indicated that it would not grant such broad exclusions to the refinery sector and that it would abide by the law when implementing the renewable fuel program.
The US Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, and Wheeler, have been fighting over the month of setting up the settlement, after Perdue informed Legislators of Capitol Hill that the president's plan for the next six months was over. ethanol would be delayed.
Wheeler then asked state officials to ignore Perdue's comments, saying in a statement that the EPA would issue the rule in March.
Ethanol industry officials said that if the plan was not formally proposed by the end of February, the EPA would have trouble implementing it by the June 1 deadline .
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