For those holding your breath since November 2013, you have only two more weeks to keep it in: That’s when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finally going to release the renewable fuel ethanol blending requirements for 2014. Following a March 2015 court order after it was sued by the American Petroleum Institute and Fuel & Chemical Mfgs. trade groups, the EPA claims it will re-propose the 2014 ethanol blending requirement by June 1 and finalize both 2014 and 2015 ethanol blending requirements by November 30 this year (the same date, ahem, that the 2016 ethanol blending requirement proposal is also due).
After seeing falling gasoline demand that made it impossible to come close to meeting ethanol blending requirements spelled out in 2007 federal renewable fuels legislation, the EPA in November 2013 released a proposal that reduced blending requirements by 16%, igniting a firestorm of criticism and intense lobbying efforts from the politically potent ethanol industry.
In response, EPA retracted the 2014 proposal and sat on its hands for two-plus years until forced by court order to adhere to the legislation requiring blending proposals for any given year be released by November 30 the previous year. News reports say the EPA will simply “propose” a blending “requirement” for 2014 that reflects the ethanol that was blended that year, and do roughly the same for its 2015 proposal.
Meanwhile, several legislative initiatives have been floated in Congress concerning the 2007 renewable fuels legislation that range from reducing blending targets to outright repeal of the whole renewable fuels program, though none have gotten much traction or support.
