WC Wisconsin News

WASHINGTON, DC – In case you missed it, this week Rep. Derrick Van Orden (WI-03) grilled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan on his agency’s slow-walk on summer E-15 waivers for the eight states, including Wisconsin, that applied.

Current regulations prohibit the sale of E-15 in the summer. In April 2022, Governor Tony Evers and seven Midwest states petitioned for permanent year-round E-15 sales, which were granted in the summer of 2022, but have not been issued for the summer of 2023. This delay comes at the expense of Wisconsin corn growers and consumers who want low-cost fuel options.

Watch the video of Van Orden’s questioning here, or read more from AgWired below:

EPA Administrator Grilled on Summer E15

Cindy Zimmerman

AgWired

April 19, 2023

Despite repeated questioning from members of the House Agriculture Committee on the topic, EPA Administrator Michael Regan refused to say when, or if, the agency will grant emergency waivers to allow retail sales of E15 this summer.

“If I give you an answer today I can guarantee you that somebody’s going to file into court and it’s going to be kicked out tomorrow,” Regan responded to a plea from Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) that time is running short and ethanol plants and fuel retailers need an answer soon. “Prior administrations attempted to issue E15 waivers and they were overturned by the court,” said Regan.

[...]

The administrator said in order to grant the waivers for the eight states – Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin – EPA has to do an air quality modeling analysis to determine whether or not E15 would “have any adverse impact,” despite the fact that E15 has been sold in the summer months nationwide for the past three years.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) took Regan to task for delaying the decision on the eight state waiver, and for not making the decision to allow E15 this summer. “It’s because of your agency’s inability to do your job in a timely manner,” said Van Orden. “It constitutes a crisis for our farmers and other consumers.”

“Use the empiric knowledge that you gathered to get this waiver to use E15 year round, use the same information because it hasn’t changed, so that we can use E15 this year,” Van Orden added. “If the conditions were the exact same as they were last year when I was administrator, I would have issued that E15 waiver,” Regan responded.

Original source can be found here.