How Trump's Deregulation Push Could Change How You Fill Up Your Tank
Ethanol, the intoxicating alcohol found in beer, wine and liquor, has been powering automobiles in the U.S. since the era of the Model T more than a century ago. Since the 1970s, when oil became more expensive and subject to international disputes -- and as worries rose about the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels -- the U.S. government has used tax policy and regulations to encourage use of ethanol and other environmentally friendly alternatives to gasoline. Now, as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to make it easier to sell more ethanol nationwide, opponents are raising environmental concerns with the corn-based fuel.
1. What change is Trump considering?
He plans to change U.S. policy to allow the sale of so-called E15 fuel -- which contains 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline -- year-round. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates air pollution from gasoline, currently blocks the sale of E15 from June 1 to September 15 in areas where smog is a problem. That three-and-a-half-month blackout period deters some retailers from offering E15 at all, because they would need to change pumps and warning labels at the start and end of each summer. Trump can order his EPA to draft a new rule that would waive E15 from air pollution requirements, allowing year-round use.
2. What’s so special about E15?
E10 is widely accepted and available in the U.S.; the 10 percent ethanol it contains provides oxygen, making gasoline burn more cleanly in engines and reduce pollution. But because ethanol is also corrosive, some critics believe that higher-ethanol E15 can cause damage to cars. In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency authorized the use of E15 for newer cars made in 2001 and later. But it’s still not common at U.S. service stations; just about 1,430 of the nation’s 122,000 filling stations sell E15.
3. Why isn’t E15 offered year-round now?
Since the heat of summer increases the evaporation of all liquids, including gasoline, the EPA set regulations with the aim of decreasing pollution. Hence, the agency has more stringent rules in place between June 1 and Sept. 15 to regulate Reid Vapor Pressure, the propensity for gasoline to evaporate and lead to smog. For those hotter months, the EPA has set lower thresholds. Congress must amend existing law or the EPA must issue a waiver of the requirements to allow the summertime sale of fuels exceeding those levels. Even though biofuel supporters say there’s no significant difference between E10 and E15 when it comes to air pollution, the latter fuel would need a waiver to be sold year-round.
4. Why is Trump involved?
As a presidential candidate, Trump promised voters in Iowa -- the top U.S. producer of corn-based ethanol -- that he would support increasing the amount of it that’s mixed in fuel. (Despite that pledge, Trump lost Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential nominating contest to Senator Ted Cruz, an ethanol critic).
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-09/why-trump-may-be-tweaking-how-you-fill-up-your-tank-quicktake?srnd=premium
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