Arkansas, Oklahoma push delay for E15 petition

Arkansas and Oklahoma have joined an oil industry effort to delay beyond 2024 a gasoline reformulation that eight Midwestern states have requested to preserve year-round sales of 15pc ethanol gasoline (E15).

Unless the fuel specification change is delayed until at least April 2025, the governors of Arkansas and Oklahoma worry their drivers will inadvertently face higher pump prices and fuel shortages. The governors cited warnings from the oil sector that, without more time to comply, the industry will be unable to provide enough of two new "boutique grades" of gasoline that are being requested by the eight Midwestern states.

"This will result in an insufficient supply of gasoline and add to the cost of gasoline at the pump for Arkansans," governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) wrote on 9 October in a request for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay the fuel specification change.

Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt (R), in a similar letter sent on 25 August, said the fuel specification change sought by other states would mean higher fuel costs for "unsuspecting Oklahoma motorists" at a time of already high gasoline prices. Stitt said he supported a congressional solution to the issue so the eight states would not require a "Band-Aid" to preserve year-round E15 sales.

E15 has been available for sale year-round nationwide since 2019, but absent intervention, the fuel blend will eventually face sales limits in the summer. A federal court in 2021 found the Clean Air Act offers a fuel volatility "waiver" exclusively to 10pc ethanol gasoline (E10), a ruling EPA has sidestepped for the last two summers by issuing temporary emergency orders citing the war in Ukraine.

To avoid future sales restrictions on E15, the eight Midwestern states — Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin — have filed a petition to rescind the longstanding Reid vapor pressure (RVP) waiver for E10, which would lead to the reformulation of the blendstocks used to produce both E10 and E15.

EPA this spring proposed approving the request from the eight states with an effective date of 28 April 2024, but it has yet to finalize the rule, leaving the oil sector uncertain about the change.

Not enough time to comply

US refiners say revoking the waiver will require them to supply two new fuel grades — regular and premium — to the eight states as soon as 1 March 2024, which they say will not offer enough time to comply.

Oil industry officials say the upgrades required to handle the new fuel grades could require years of work.

Magellan Midstream, which said it supplies the majority of gasoline sold in many of the eight Midwestern states, said it does not have adequate infrastructure at most of its terminals to accommodate the two new grades of gasoline the reformulation change would require.

"The timeline for new storage and infrastructure modifications is 24 months or more," Magellan said in an 18 August letter to the EPA requesting a one-year delay. Additional time would be needed for permitting and construction of the new infrastructure, and it would also make it more costly for Magellan to operate its entire pipeline system by reducing "fungibility" of the same 9 psi RVP gasoline to most states it serves.

Magellan also supplies fuel to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming, which are not seeking the gasoline reformulation.

Change known about for months

Ethanol industry groups oppose delaying the effective date for the new fuel past April 2024, saying refiners and terminal operators have known for months that EPA was preparing a final rule requiring the fuel change.

"If refiners and pipeline and terminal operators don't like the idea of supplying lower-volatility gasoline in these eight states, they should join us in supporting recently introduced legislation that would permanently resolve this issue nationwide and make these state petitions unnecessary," Renewable Fuels Association president Geoff Cooper said.

The oil industry group the American Petroleum Institute, in a letter to EPA on 29 September seeking to delay the fuel change until 2025, said it supports a bill sponsored by US senator Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) extending the E10 waiver to E15 as preferable to states seeking different rules.

But uncertainty over the prospects for that bill have raised concerns by the oil industry. Magellan said any spending to handle the new fuel grades sought by the eight states would be "high risk investments" that could be stranded if Congress grants a nationwide E15 waiver. Delaying the change to 2025 could provide time to develop a legislative solution, Magellan said.

EPA did not respond to a request for comment on the timing of its final rule.

By Chris Knight