WASHINGTON – (April 2, 2012) Today, for the first time, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved E15 (gasoline with 15 percent ethanol) as a registered fuel. This is one step closer to seeing low-cost, renewable E15 sold into the American fuels marketplace.
This is the most significant development in a three year effort to approve sale of the mid-level ethanol blend, and it follows EPA’s approval of health effects testing of the fuel in February.
“Our nation needs E15 to reduce our dependence on foreign oil – it will keep gas prices down at the pump and help to end the extreme fluctuations in gas prices caused by our reliance on fuel from unstable parts of the world,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy. “Today’s announcement from EPA finally puts that goal within reach.”
“This announcement strengthens the ethanol industry’s efforts to innovate and continue to deliver domestically-produced and affordable alternatives to foreign oil,” said Buis. “With ethanol selling an average of a dollar a gallon cheaper than gasoline and $4 a gallon gasoline on the horizon, we’d encourage all Americans to ask their local filling station how soon they will see more-affordable E15.”
“American consumers may soon have some much deserved relief at the pump. Today’s EPA decision clears yet another major hurdle in bringing E15 to the marketplace. States in the Midwest have begun to address their regulatory requirements and perhaps as early as summer we could see E15 at fuels stations in the Heartland of America. The future for consumers, ethanol producers and this country has just gotten a little brighter, a little stronger,” said Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association.