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The U.S EPA final rule for emission standards for cars and gasoline made E10 the new federal emissions test fuel, finalized specifications for E85 test fuel for flex-fuel vehicles (FFV) and left the door open for vehicle manufacturers to request approval for alternative certification fuel, such as E30, for vehicles optimized for that fuel.

“It’s not the greatest thing since sliced bread; but at least there’s dough in the machine,” said Advanced Biofuels USA’s vehicle emissions expert, Robert Kozak, in a press release. In other words, the standards, known as Tier 3 rules, don’t contain everything the ethanol industry could have hoped for, but it did include some positive elements.

The final rule requires that all Tier 3 light duty and chassis-certified heavy-duty gasoline vehicles be certified on E10. The test fuel will be used for new vehicle certification, assembly lines and in-use testing. The EPA considered a change in the volatility of the fuel, or pounds per square inch (psi) Reid Vapor Pressure, but ultimately concluded that an RVP of 9 psi should be maintained for the E10 test fuel.

General Motors addressed the fact that E10, rather than straight gasoline, is now the new test fuel. “We commend EPA for selecting a certification fuel that is representative of in-use fuels,” the company said in a prepared statement. “This allows OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to optimize vehicle performance to an actual fuel that our customers use nationwide.”

In addition, finalizing specifications for an E85 emissions test fuel for FFVs will help resolve uncertainty and confusion, the EPA said.

The agency also said that it intended to finalize in-use fuel quality standards for E51 to E83 and possibly E16 to E50 as well but wasn’t able to do it in time to include it in this final rule.

“As the number of flex-fuel vehicles in the in-use fleet increases, it is becoming increasingly important that all fuels used in FFVs, not just gasoline, meet fuel quality standards,” the EPA said. “A lack of clarity regarding the standards that apply to fuels used in FFVs could also act to impede the further expansion of ethanol blended fuels with concentrations greater than 15 volume percent, which is important to satisfying the requirements of the RFS2 program.”

Read the original story here : EPA Sets E10 As New Test Fuel

AEC : President's Budget Charts Right Path On Fuel

Renewable Fuels Association

March 4, 2014

WASHINGTON — Brooke Coleman, Executive Director of the Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC), released a statement today in response to the release of the FY2015 budget by the White House:

“The Advanced Ethanol Council commends President Obama for proposing to tackle the fundamental inequities and uncertainties that exist in the federal tax code when it comes to developing new fuels and technologies. A multiyear extension of the tax credit for cellulosic biofuels would help put the United States at the forefront of the global race to commercialize cellulosic biofuels. The expiration of this credit in 2013 came right at the time when the cellulosic biofuel industry was breaking through at commercial scale. Reinstating the provision will ensure that the next wave of commercial cellulosic biofuel plants will be built by Americans on American soil. We also strongly support the President’s proposal to tackle the issue of oil subsidies, which for decades have been driving investment away from the renewable fuel sector. Doing away with decades-old subsidies to oil and gas will not hurt those industries given their maturity and wealth, but will send a clear signal to the marketplace to invest in innovative, low-carbon alternatives to petroleum. It is this type of budget package that will create new jobs in new industries in the coming decade, and put the United States in the best position to succeed when it comes to developing next generation fuels.”

Read the original story here : AEC: President's Budget Charts Right Path On Fuels

More Responses To Misleading Commentary On Ethanol

March 17, 2014

On March 11, the Duluth News Tribune carried the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association's (MBA) response to a misleading and inaccurate commentary on the ethanol industry by the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota. Today, on March 17, Ag Week, ran MBA's response as well as another by the CEO of Growth Energy.

To recap, Annette Meeks of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, wrote in the Duluth News Tribune on Feb 19 a commentary piece critical over the ethanol industry. That commentary was republished in Ag Week on March 10.

Today, on March 17, Ag Week published MBA's response which can be found here : Meeks Letter Misses The Mark

In addition, to MBA's response, Ag Week also published a response from Growth Energy's CEO, Tom Buis, which can be read below:

Ag Week

March 17, 2014

Renewable Fuel Standard Reality Check

By Tom Buis

The Renewable Fuel Standard has been so successful that the oil industry now sees ethanol as a major threat to its bottom line. Unfortunately, Annette Meeks’ opinion piece, “Ethanol mandate hurts environment,” recently published in Agweek, shamelessly parroted many of the oil industry’s false claims about ethanol and repeatedly cites skewed facts from an Associated Press story that can only be described as a “hatchet job” against the ethanol industry.

Meeks’ op-ed was riddled with errors. It erroneously claimed that 5 million acres of land set aside for conservation have vanished. Actually, as U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently noted, the total acreage of conservation programs has increased more than 70 percent in recent years to more than 350 million acres. While land use change in the U.S. is a complex and dynamic process, Secretary Vilsack emphasized that it was unlikely that significant amounts of acreage set aside for conservation in 2012 went into corn production in 2013.

Meeks also cited rising food prices, and erroneously shifted the blame onto the back of the ethanol industry. In fact, a recent World Bank study outlined how crude oil prices are responsible for 50 percent of the increase in food prices since 2004 — a year before the RFS was even enacted. Furthermore, this analysis has been validated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and countless other objective economic studies.

Here’s what’s indisputable, however: clean, renewable biofuels are helping cut our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and creating significant economic opportunities here at home. And because ethanol costs about 60 cents per gallon less than gasoline, it saves us all money at the pump.

It’s time to set the record straight on Big Oil’s cynical scheme to stifle American innovation and protect their own profits — no matter the costs to our environment, our economy and our national security. Ethanol and other biofuels are making our country stronger, safer and more prosperous and deserve the steadfast support of our leaders in Washington.

Read the original response here : Renewable Fuel Standard Reality Check

Minnesota Leads In E85 Stations

U.S. Energy Information Administration

March 7, 2014

The number of retail fueling stations offering motor fuel that can be up to 85% ethanol, known as E85, has grown rapidly since 2007. According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), Minnesota continues to lead the nation, with 336 E85 retail locations. However, in recent years, states outside of the Midwest have experienced some of the fastest growth. Currently, 2% of all retail stations in the United States offer E85, serving the approximately 5% of the U.S. light-duty vehicle fleet capable of running on E85.

Retail stations selling E85 have historically been concentrated in the Midwest, where they benefit from a readily available ethanol fuel supplied to blenders. In 2007, the earliest year for which state-level data are available, the majority of E85 stations were located in just five states—Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin. While states in the Midwest corn-growing region continue to add significant numbers of new E85 retail locations, California, New York, Colorado, Georgia, and Texas have also experienced rapid growth of E85 availability, adding more than 49 retail locations each between 2007 and 2013. As a result, the share of nationwide E85 stations in the five traditional ethanol-producing states of the Midwest fell from 54% in 2007 to 36% in 2013.

California and New York have seen some of the fastest growth in new E85 fueling stations, increasing from fewer than a dozen stations combined in 2007 to more than 80 stations each in 2013. Only two states (New Hampshire and Alaska) currently have no E85 fueling stations, compared to nine that had none of these stations in 2007.

Growth in the number of E85 fueling stations has slowed in the past two years. The number of E85 fueling stations in the United States almost doubled between 2007 to 2011, from 1,229 to 2,442, but only increased by 7% from 2011 to 2013, when the total reached 2,625. Notwithstanding the increase in the number of retail outlets selling E85 since 2007, the vast majority of the nation's approximately 156,000 retail motor fuel outlets do not offer E85.

Read the original story here : Minnesota Leads In E85 Stations

E15 For South Dakota Fleet Vehicles

March 7, 2014

Pierre - South Dakota will begin incorporating E15 for the state's fleet vehicles. The announcement, made by Gov. Dennis Daugaard on March 6, said E15 will be made available during a test period at four major fuel sites across the state for a six-month period.

"South Dakota is a large ethanol producer, and our state has significantly benefitted from the ethanol industry," Daugaard said. "The goal is to use more of our homegrown fuel by using E15, the newest fuel in the marketplace."

He said E15 will be used by the state's flex fuel vehicles (FFVs), which comprise 85 percent of the state's fleet of 1,950 vehicles, and newer non-FFVs. At present, the state's fueling sites primarily offer E10.

Following the six-month period, the state will evaluate the use of E15 for its fleet vehicles. The fueling sites will be in Brookings, Pierre, Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

Read the original story here : E15 For South Dakota Fleet Vehicles

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