ICGA joins NCGA call for summer E15

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois Corn joined 13 states and the National Corn Growers Association in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency requesting an emergency waiver to keep E15 available for Americans this summer.

The letter follows the EPA’s recent response to delay the implementation of a proposal written by eight Midwestern governors for year-round E15 until 2024. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker was one of eight administrators to support the proposal.

“An emergency waiver for summer E15 would give consumers the option of lower cost fuel during the warmer months,” said Matt Rush, Illinois Corn Growers Association president.

“Our farmers also ask the EPA to grant this request which encourages the use of cleaner fuel in the United States.”

Illinois corn farmers and the ethanol industry also are concerned the year delay will have an impact on market certainty and request action be taken to ensure E15 remains an option in this summer’s fuel market.

Last summer, the Biden administration issued an emergency fuel waiver for E15 which gave Americans a less expensive fuel option following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In the organizations’ letter to the EPA, NCGA reports the emergency waiver saved drivers with access to E15 an average of 16 cents per gallon between June and September 2022.

“In total, drivers saved $57 million during that three-month span,” stated NCGA’s letter.

The Next Generation Fuels Act, a bipartisan bill recently introduced in the U.S. House and Senate, also includes a provision to allow E10 and higher blends year-round nationwide.