| The Honorable Roger WickerUnited States Senate555 Dirksen Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510 | The Honorable David VitterUnited States Senate516 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510 |
Dear Senators Wicker and Vitter:
The undersigned organizations representing businesses, agriculture, environmental, development, and free market interests fully support your legislation S. 344, to rescind EPA’s E15 waivers and to cap ethanol content in gasoline at 10 percent.
In 2010 and 2011, EPA granted two waivers that allowed a 50 percent increase in ethanol content for automobiles manufactured after 2000. At the time, many of our organizations argued that the science and testing on E15 were incomplete and that EPA should therefore reject the waiver petitions from the ethanol industry. Unfortunately, in the time since these decisions, the potential unintended consequences for millions of consumers and the environment have become all too clear. In fact, subsequent testing has shown that E15 may damage even approved vehicles, and a recent survey shows that up to a third of the pumps carrying E15 are not properly labeling the fuel- which will likely lead to misfueling of non-approved engines. In addition to the impacts on engines, an increase in ethanol content will have well-documented detrimental effects on food and feed prices at home and abroad, and on the environment.
Your legislation is a common sense measure that will mitigate the effects of this ill-conceived decision. Our organizations fully support its passage and encourage Congress to bring it up this year.
Sincerely,