California Assembly passes bill to speed E15 adoption
On October 1, 2024, the California Assembly passed ABX2-9, a bill aimed at allowing the sale of E15 fuel blends in the state, which currently prohibits such sales. Introduced by Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, the bill passed with a 68-0 vote and is now under Senate consideration. It mandates the California Energy Commission and CARB to report on fuel solutions by July 2025 and allows for a fee on ethanol producers to fund E15 regulation development.
October 3, 2024
The California Assembly on Oct. 1 voted in favor of a bill that aims to allow the sale of E15 fuel blends within the state. California is the only state that has not approved the sale of E15, a gasoline blend that contains up to 15% ethanol.
The bill, ABX2-9, was introduced by California Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris on Sept. 24. The bill on Sept. 27 unanimously passed out of the Petroleum and Gasoline Supply Committee. The California Assembly on Oct. 1 voted 68 to zero in favor of the bill, which is now under consideration by the California Senate.
The bill would require the California Energy Commission, in consultation with the California Air Resource Board, to report to the legislature by July 1, 2025, on specified potential solutions to increase the supply of gasoline within the state as identified by the 2024 CEC Transportation Fuels Assessment. The bill allow allows CARB to adopt a fee on ethanol producer to cover all of a portion of the agency’s costs associated with the development, implementation, and enforcement of gasoline blends containing between 10% and 15% ethanol by volume. Those fees cannot exceed $5 million collected over five years. The bill would require CARB to complete its multimedia evaluation of E15 by July 1, 2025.
The 2024 CEC Transportation Fuels Assessment included several potential strategies that could increase the production of gasoline by modifying fuel standards. One of those strategies the report said is worthy of analysis is the modification of fuel standards to increase ethanol blending to 15% by volume.
According to an analysis of the legislation published by the California Assembly, multimedia evaluations are conducted by a working group and typically take 2-5 years to complete. They are performed based on a three-tier structure. CARB began the process of a multimedia evaluation for E15 in 2018. A Tier III report, the multimedia risk assessment final report, was circulated to relevant agencies in late 2022, but little progress has been made since that time, with CARB currently estimating that at least another full year may be needed to complete the entirety of the multimedia evaluation.
ABX2-9 would accelerate the process underway at CARB to evaluation, but does so while preserving the existing statutory requirements. The bill analysis explains that slow progress on CARB’s E15 work has raised concerns about the agency’s resource constraints to finish the work. The fee levied on ethanol producers aims to help overcome those resource constraints.
Source Link : https://ethanolproducer.com/articles/california-assembly-passes-bill-to-speed-e15-adoption
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