September 24, 2010
E15 decision due mid-October By: Philip Brasher
Published in Des Moines Register
Government approval for some use of a higher ethanol blend in gasoline could come by the middle of October.
Test results on 2007 and newer vehicles will be ready by the end of this month, and the Environmental Protection Agency should decide two weeks later whether to allow those cars and trucks to run on as much as 15 percent ethanol, a blend known as E15, said Lisa Jackson, the agency’s administrator. The current limit for conventional vehicles is 10 percent.
Additional Energy Department testing on 2001 to 2006 vehicles won’t be done until the end of the year, which will delay a decision on approving E15 for those vehicles, Jackson told the Senate agriculture committee on Thursday.
“EPA will be in a position to make a determination” on 2001-2006 vehicles “as we see the data,” she said.
E15 won’t be in service stations right away, even if the EPA decides to approve it for 2007 and newer vehicles. A number of federal and state regulations will have to be adjusted to allow for the fuel, but the initial EPA action on the newer vehicles will allow that process to start, said Chris Thorne, a spokesman for Growth Energy, an ethanol industry group that asked the EPA to permit the use of E15.
He said the E15 approval would be a “a good first step. We are confident it will be followed by approval for older model vehicles once DOE completes its testing on them later this year.”
No tests...
