& # 039; That's what you want to hear & # 039;
& # 039; That's what you want to hear & # 039;
In the movie "Field of Dreams," someone asks the main character Kevin Costner plays if this is paradise. No, he says, "it's Iowa." But it is a political paradise if you are a corn farmer who sells to ethanol refiners, as President Trump shows this week with one more favor for the fuel made with corn and his taxes.
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"And my Administration is protecting ethanol, okay? That's what you want to hear," Trump said at a rally in Iowa on Tuesday and gave him points for political sincerity. Mr. Trump then announced that his Administration will now allow fuel to be sold with 15% ethanol throughout the year. The Clean Air Act sets standards for fuel volatility, and E15 has not been allowed in the summer because it can cause smog. Most mixtures contain 10% ethanol.
On the positive side, the White House does not demand or subsidize more ethanol, which has already been introduced in the supply of fuel at increasing rates according to the renewable fuel standard. In an ideal market, ethanol blends could compete with regular gasoline throughout the year without the potpourri of government distortions. (We can also dream.)
Some 20 senators from both sides said in a letter last week that the agency does not have the legal authority to overturn the Clean Air Act's summer standards. The law establishes an exemption process for "mixtures containing gasoline and 10 percent denatured anhydrous ethanol." But nowhere is a mixture of 15% mentioned.
The EPA said in 2011 that it does not believe it has the authority to allow sales of E15 throughout the year, and that is not remembered as an age of restriction by the agency. If the standards are too strict, then Congress should change them. Oil companies plan to sue, even if their not-so-pure motive is moving away from the competition of cheap ethanol amid rising oil prices.
The other issue is how the small reformers seem to be getting in return. The Trump Administration says it is considering changes in compliance credits known in the lingua franca as "renewable identification numbers" or RIN, which companies must buy if they do not reach the ethanol mix quotas. The East Coast refiner, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, paid R $ 300 million for RIN in 2017 (twice the company's payroll).
The White House cited speculators as an area for reform, but RINs are expensive because many companies have to buy credits instead of mixing a marginal gallon of ethanol. In other words, RINs are expensive because credits are scarce. The Administration also said that it would focus on transparency, although everyone knows the real problem.
If there is a greater demand for E15, RINs may be less expensive, although even Iowa sells four times the amount of E0, without ethanol, as do E15 and E85 combined. At this point, the Administration must at least limit the price of the RIN (a maximum fine for non-compliance) or allow exports to create RIN and, therefore, increase the supply of credits.
We almost feel complicit in raising small issues such as law and economics, since the new policy is so clearly a blow for farmers hit by Trump's tariff policy. As always, a bad policy inevitably leads to another.
SOURCE LINK ERESVIRAL.COM https://www.beviral.online
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