NACS, along with The American Petroleum Institute (API); Growth Energy; NATSO, Representing America's Travel Centers and Truck Stops; the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA); and SIGMA: America's Leading Fuel Marketers, sent a letter to President Donald Trump this week to express the need for long-term policy certainty across the transportation fuel sector. In the letter, the organizations urged policymakers to advance legislation in support of a stable, efficient fuels marketplace.
E15 continues to play an expanding role in the fuel marketplace, but unpredictable short-term waivers, seasonal and geographic restrictions, and regionally unique summer gasoline specifications in the Midwest have created a shifting regulatory environment that complicates planning and investment.
"Legislation allowing the year-round, nationwide sale of E15 would improve fungibility and substantially reduce many of the complexities that arise for our industries as we operate in a national marketplace," the organizations wrote.
The letter urges the White House to support legislative action providing lasting certainty to this issue, coupled with reforms to the Small Refinery Exemption (SRE) program.
"The current SRE structure has encouraged a system of winners and losers that distorts the marketplace, creates instability and ultimately hurts consumers," the letter states. "A more consistent and narrowly applied SRE structure would create a far more predictable regulatory environment."
NACS has previously joined other coalition letters regarding E15—one sent to EPA reiterated the need for nationwide emergency RVP waivers and supported the inclusion of E10 for the Midwestern states in addition to E15 nationally.