South Carolina Motorcycle Rights Association

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces Friday, May 29th that it would reduce the amount of ethanol requirements for gasoline, reports the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF).  This proposal would cut ethanol production for 2014, 2015 and 2016. The EPA cites market conditions and the lack of non-corn renewable fuel sources like plant waste from being developed on any sort of commercial scale.

A 2007 law, known as the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), requires refiners to blend in an increasing amount of biofuels into the United States gasoline supply each year. According to the proposal, the levels of ethanol will still continue to increase, but less than it would have, preventing the Obama administration from achieving the goals of the 2007 law.

“The EPA has missed several deadlines to lay out the production levels for 2014 and 2015, and this announcement is the reason why,” said Jeff Hennie, Vice President of Government Relations and Public Affairs for the Motorcycle Riders Foundation. “They know that the RFS amounts were going to be unattainable, and now we know too.” Hennie also testified at an EPA hearing on the RFS in favor of a study that would examine the lasting effects of E15 on internal combustion engines.

With today’s domestic oil boom, and the fact that we are consuming less gasoline than we were in 2007, a void for biofuels was created. Add in the fact that the US is only importing about a third of its oil, and the need for biofuel all but disappears.

In its proposal the EPA would increase the levels of blended in 2015 to 16.3 billion gallons, four less than what the RFS requires. In 2016 the EPA would require about five billion less gallons than the law requires.

This is obviously a blow to the affected industries around ethanol and a boom for big oil. Whatever side of this equation you end up on, one thing is certain: raising levels of ethanol in fuel from 10 percent (E10) to 15 percent (E15) overnight has been hard on motorcycles. This is why the MRF is supporting H.R. 21 in the United States House of Representatives. H.R. 21, a bill authored by James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), would require a full examination of what effects the higher blends of ethanol have on motors. Contact your member in the U.S. House of Representatives to cosponsor this important legislation.