Year-round sales of E-15 will be a boost for Midwest corn farmers and motorists when it goes on sale in select states in April 2025, farmers and advocates say.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the continued sale of the 15 percent ethanol blend last week, three years after governors in eight Midwestern states called for it in 2022.
“It's great news,” said Brian Duncan, a grain farmer and president of the Illinois Farm Bureau. “The only thing that would have made it even bigger would have been earlier, but we're very pleased.”
The governors of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin filed the request, arguing that year-round sales of E-15 could help lower prices for consumers at the pump with the additional supply .
Most gas currently sold in the US is a 10% ethanol blend. Senior Biden administration officials said sales of E-15 at 2,300 Midwest stations will save drivers about 10 cents per gallon. according to the Associated Press.
Currently, E-15 sales are banned from June 1 to September 15 due to environmental concerns that higher ethanol blends harm air quality in warmer summer temperatures. The EPA had temporarily allowed sales in previous summers.
“It's really so important for corn farmers and for the ethanol industry to have some kind of certainty — and at least we have that going forward,” said Lindsay Mitchell, an official with the Illinois Corn Growers Association.
However, EPA has not yet decided on a 2024 waiver.
“We question and are concerned about the impact of the schedule on growers and consumers this summer,” said Harold Wall, a Minnesota farmer and president of the National Corn Growers Association. he said in a statement.
Some oil refiners have pushed the EPA to make E-15 sales nationwide — and not just in the Midwest — because of concerns about local price increases and supply issues, Reuters reported.
Last week's news also raised concerns among those with questions about ethanol's environmental impact, including Jason Hill, a professor of bioproducts and biosystems at the University of Minnesota.
Hill, who studies air quality and bioenergy, said carbon dioxide emissions of ethanol tend to be similar to gasoline coming out of a vehicle's exhaust. The impact on human health may not be that different from a 10% ethanol blend to a 15% blend, he said.
“Ethanol's biggest impact on air quality is not in its combustion but in its production,” Hill said.
Using nitrogen fertilizer and animal manure to produce corn results in high ammonia emissions, Hill said. These are major contributors to fine particles in the atmosphere, which harm human health, he said.
“It's not a step in the right direction in terms of improving air quality or reducing climate change or improving water quality,” Hill said. “It's a small step backwards in terms of all these different environmental impacts.”
Ethanol producers argue that there are more grain-based alternatives Environmentally friendly and reduce America's energy dependence on foreign countries.
This story was created in collaboration with Harvest Public Media, a partnership of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. He reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
