Trump administration courts ethanol sector with help for E15 fuel and denial of old oil-refinery waivers still pending

The Trump administration courted the ethanol sector this week with a pair of announcements.

Over the weekend, President Trump tweeted "that he’ll remove federal roadblocks to the sale of 15 percent ethanol gasoline in standard fuel pumps that currently facilitate the 10 percent blend," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Weekly Agriculture. "As far the administration is concerned, just about any filling station can now sell gas with the higher blend of ethanol without having to replace its entire underground infrastructure, a major obstacle to increased E15 sales."

On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will deny all pending gap-year small-refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2011-2018. "The EPA has yet to decide the fate of 31 pending waiver requests for 2019 and 2020, but the announcement ends what has been an agonizing period for the ethanol and agriculture industries. The ethanol industry stood to lose billions of gallons of fuel demand had the waivers been granted," Todd Neeley reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

The moves could help Trump's chances with corn growers and biofuel producers frustrated by his ethanol policies, McCrimmon reports.