Ron Lamberty, senior vice president for the American Coalition for Ethanol, testified before officials from the U.S. EPA June 9, where he urged EPA to maintain a strong fuel standard as intended by Congress during a Kansas City, Missouri, field hearing on the proposed renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for 2017.

Lamberty focused on two areas in his remarks, first telling EPA about 300 stations across the nation that have easily exceeded the blend wall. "Some of these stations sell more than 30 percent ethanol overall," Lamberty said, "but I also want EPA to realize stations where E85 makes up only 9 percent of fuel sales are selling 17 percent renewables. That blows away any so-called E10 'blend wall.'"

Lamberty then reminded EPA that the oil industry's attacks on ethanol and the RFS are identical to the attacks they've made against other new rules EPA has proposed in the past, and asked the agency to stand up to those attacks as they have in the past. "Go all the way back to phasing out lead, and you'll see the oil industry said it was unnecessary because lead posed no danger, and it couldn’t be done without putting refiners and station owners out of business, destroying cars, and driving up costs," Lamberty said. "The identical approach was taken against tank laws and sulfur reduction in gas and diesel."

"EPA stood firm on earlier laws, the oil industry complied, air and water quality improved, and none of Big Oil's doomsday predictions came true," Lamberty said. "We encourage you to do the same for the RFS, and expect the results to be the same."

Lamberty was joined by 50 other people who will testify on behalf of ACE member companies or organizations. Lamberty’s full testimony along with others will be posted throughout the day at https://ethanol.org/news/news/