In 2023, Growth Energy will work with Congress and the Biden Administration to affirm the role America’s ethanol industry plays in providing American drivers with a lower-cost, lower-carbon fuel option that is readily available today. We also seek to expand our ability to decarbonize other sectors of the transportation system, like heavy duty trucking, aviation, and shipping. In addition, providing renewable chemicals and materials to consumers is a potential new marketplace. Our 2023 federal policy priorities include:

Help Drivers Save Money with Higher Biofuel Blends

• Allow E15 to be sold year-round throughout the country on a permanent basis.
• Clarify rules so that existing fuel storage and dispensing equipment used for E10 is legal for E15.
• Finalize EPA’s proposal to simplify onerous E15 labeling requirements at fuel pumps.
• Implement USDA infrastructure funding to expand access to higher-level biofuel blends.
• Allow state-level E10 and E15 parity to take effect immediately in the eight states that requested it from EPA.

Support Pro-Biofuels Tax Incentives

• Promote new uses for biofuels, including in aviation, marine, and heavy-duty applications.
• Oppose efforts to repeal tax credits like 45Z (clean fuel production credit), 45Q (carbon capture tax credit), and 40B (sustainable aviation fuel tax credit).
• Support commonsense efforts to ensure that tax incentive modeling accurately reflects the low-carbon benefits of corn ethanol. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne GREET Model incorporates up-to-date science which more accurately scores carbon intensity for ethanol and other renewable fuels. Without using GREET, U.S. biofuel producers will not be able to participate in markets like Sustainable Aviation Fuel, and rural communities will be locked out from contributing to efforts to decarbonize the airline fleet.

Leverage the RFS to Lower Carbon Emissions & Fuel Prices

• EPA should update its greenhouse gas (GHG) lifecycle analysis to reflect the best available science on the climate profile of corn starch ethanol, which shows that carbon reductions from ethanol are more than double what EPA’s outdated model reflects.
• Approve pending registrations for cellulosic biofuel from kernel fiber.
• Improve and finalize biointermediate regulations to remove hurdles so that ethanol can be leveraged as a value feedstock for Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
• Allow carbon capture to qualify as an approve pathway process under the RFS.

Ensure New Vehicle Standards Recognize Low-Carbon Ethanol

• EPA’s 2027-2032 vehicle GHG standards should provide a pathway for ethanol-blended fuels to play a great role in reducing carbon emissions from light-duty vehicles.
• Increase octane content in vehicle fuel, making engines more efficient and encouraging higher-level ethanol blends.

Eliminate Trade Barriers for U.S. Ethanol

• Ensure fair access to low-carbon ethanol in markets like Canada, India, Brazil, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
• Address Brazilian import tariff on American ethanol and the non-tariff barriers in place that further complicate our bilateral ethanol trade practice with Brazil.