WASHINGTON, D.C. — An anti-ethanol coalition has generated more than 10,000 comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in support of the agency’s proposal to keep ethanol concentrations from increasing at fuel pumps, according to the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA).
The coalition, Smarter Fuel Future, reports more than 1,800 of those comments were from the marine industry.
The EPA recently proposed keeping fuel blend volumes at 2013 levels, amid warnings from those in the marine and auto industries that increased ethanol content would be seriously detrimental to some engines. The proposal would essentially keep blends at the current E10 level.
In the document, the EPA mentions the “practical limits on ethanol blending, called the ethanol ‘blend wall’…[which] refers to the difficulty in incorporating increasing amounts of ethanol into the transportation fuel supply at volumes exceeding those achieved by the sale of nearly all gasoline as E10.”
According to the agency, with its proposal about 10 percent of all fuel used this year would come from “renewable sources,” including cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, and advanced biofuel.
But the fight over ethanol is far from over. The MRAA stated in a press release, “MRAA continues to actively oppose corn-based ethanol in Congress.”
