According to data from the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the volume of E15 recorded in the first eight months of 2017 exceeded the volume sold for the whole of 2016 by 13 percent (5.68 million gallons).

Nonetheless, the data from the Commerce Department also highlighted the adverse effects of the EPA's RVP (reid vapor pressure) rule in August. The RVP bans the sale of E15 from June to September. The ban, however, doesn't extend to flex fuels. As such, many retailers rebrand E15 as a flex fuel in the summer.

Still, the rebranding was not enough to prevent a huge drop in E15 sales this past summer. Prior to the RVP, E15 sales in Minnesota were averaging a million gallons a month. In August, sales were 491,584 gallons, mirroring the volume in July (470,647 gallons) and June (503,449 gallons). 

On a more positive note, sales of E30 in August totaled 55,749 gallons, the highest recorded in Minnesota since May 2011. On a eight-month cumulative basis, E30 sales totaled 404,033 gallons, 81 percent of the volume sold for the whole of 2016 (494,688 gallons).

Sales of E85 in August was 1.24 million gallons, up 22 percent from the volume recorded in the same month in 2016 (1.1 million gallons). The total volume of E85 sold in the first eight months of the year was 9.38 million gallons. On an annualized basis, the E85 volume this year is poised to total 14.07 million gallons, 12 percent higher than the volume recorded in 2016 (12.58 million gallons).