Governors urge EPA to issue emergency waivers for E10, E15
Governors from seven Midwest states urged the U.S. EPA to grant emergency waivers allowing uniform fuel standards for E10 and E15 amid fuel supply shortages. They stressed the need for consistent regulations to avoid market disruptions and ensure affordable, reliable fuel options during the summer. The request follows EPA’s 2025 rule for year-round E15 sales in the region.
The governors of Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Illinois on April 16 sent a letter to U.S. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin calling on the agency to issue an emergency waiver to ensure regulatory consistency for fuel suppliers heading into the summer driving season.
The letter references the EPA’s February 2025 announcement that it would uphold a 2024 rulemaking that allowed year-round E15 sales to begin in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin starting with the summer 2025 driving season. The governors note the regulatory change ensures equal treatment for E10 and E15 within their states, ensuring E15 can be readily available to consumers this summer. Ohio and South Dakota have elected to delay implementation of the Midwest E15 rule until next year.
“However, with calls for the EPA to provide nationwide emergency relief for E15 due to the ongoing fuel supply shortages, we are requesting that if EPA issues emergency waivers for E15, those waivers also allow E10 to exceed the applicable RVP standard at 40 CFR 1090.215(b)(3)(ii) by 1 psi for the areas included in Table 2 of that section,” the governors wrote. “This would ensure that consistent and uniform fuel specifications for both E10 and E15 are applied nationwide for the upcoming summer.
“While our primary goal remains uninterrupted access to E15 for our consumers, we do support the calls for nationwide E15 relief,” they continued. “Given the national energy emergency we are currently experiencing, our consumers need reliable and affordable fuel options, like E15, during the busy summer driving season. The extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine and other geopolitical factors that have left U.S. stocks of crude oil and petroleum products near 20-year lows.
“It is important, however, that relief does not return our states to the time of unequal regulations for E10 and E15, resulting in fuel fungibility issues during a national fuel supply crisis,” the governors added. “By granting the waiver for both E10 and E15, EPA will ensure uniform standards for both E10 and E15, will increase available fuel supplies thereby lowering consumer costs, and will maximize fuel fungibility whereby all conventional gasoline can be used throughout the nation for both E10 and E15.”
The letter is signed by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, South Dakota Go. Larry Rhoden, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
The Trump administration earlier this year signaled it is considering issuing emergency waivers to allow nationwide access to E15 this summer. Such waivers were issued during 2022, 2023, and 2024 summer driving seasons.
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Source : Ethanol Producer Magazine
