Micheal Clements, NAFB News Service

Responding to the oil industry’s effort to undermine the expansion of E15, ethanol groups filed a court brief supporting E15. Growth Energy, the Renewable Fuels Association, and National Corn Growers Association filed the brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit late last week. The brief supports and defends the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2019 regulation that finally allowed year-round availability of E15. As intervenors in the oil industry’s lawsuit against EPA’s regulation allowing year-round E15, Growth Energy, RFA, and NCGA are “vigorously protecting the agency’s final rule,” which extended the Reid Vapor Pressure volatility waiver for E10 blends to E15 as well. The organizations further point out that extending the volatility waiver from E10 to E15 is appropriate because the volatility of the fuel actually decreases as more ethanol is added into gasoline beyond E10. The brief states, “This Court should not allow the petroleum industry and its allies to stymie competition in this comparatively small but important portion of the U.S. transportation fuel supply.”