Thune Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Allow Year-Round E15 Sales

Press Release

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a longtime member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, joined a bipartisan group of his colleagues in introducing the Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act of 2022. The legislation would allow for the year-round, nationwide sale of ethanol blends higher than 10 percent, like E15.

"The year-round sale of E15 is a common-sense way to leverage American agriculture and provide drivers with a clean and affordable fuel option," said Thune. "I have long supported measures like this one that would give fuel retailers the certainty they need to offer E15 without seasonal interruption, which also benefits the biofuel industry -- an essential market for South Dakota farmers."

The bill was led by U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and was also co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Thune, an ardent supporter of higher ethanol blends like E15 fuel, led the successful effort to restore summertime E15 sales for 2022 after repeatedly calling on the president to take action. Earlier this year, Thune introduced the Adopt Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation Act, bipartisan legislation to fully recognize the greenhouse gas reductions achieved by modern biofuels, as well as a separate bill to approve advanced renewable fuel technologies and lower biofuel emissions, policies he has also urged President Biden to adopt. Most recently, Thune led his colleagues in pressing the Environmental Protection Agency to establish robust renewable volumes and provide regulatory certainty in the imminently forthcoming "set" rule for the Renewable Fuel Standard.

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