Wed Mar 3, 2010 9:35pm GMT
By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection will decide by late summer whether to allow higher levels of ethanol to be blended into gasoline, the head of the agency told Congress on Wednesday.
The EPA is considering an industry request for a waiver from federal rules to allow gasoline to contain up to 15 percent ethanol. Gasoline is now approved to have up to 10 percent ethanol, which in the United States is made mostly from corn.
Administrator Lisa Jackson said the EPA is on track to receive by May results of final Energy Department tests on how higher ethanol-blended gasoline would affect vehicle engines.
"We expect that once we get that additional data...then EPA will be in a position to move toward the final decision on waiver, late summer is the time period," Jackson told lawmakers at a Senate Appropriates subcommittee budget hearing.
In December, EPA said initial tests showed vehicles made after 2001 probably will be able to use gasoline blended with as much as 15 percent ethanol, commonly known as E15.
At Wednesday's hearing, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska asked that EPA to consider data from Brazil, which allows gasoline with a 20 to 25 ethanol blend.
Nelson pointed out there have been no reports of damage to vehicle engines in Brazil or to smaller engines that run motor boats and chainsaws and use higher ethanol-blended gasoline.
Jackson said EPA staff members were reviewing the Brazilian information.
A coalition of oil companies, car and engine manufacturers and fuel sellers urged the EPA in January not to increase the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline based on inadequate test data.
Gasoline with a higher volume of ethanol would help absorb the annual increase in ethanol supplies required by Congress in its attempt to reduce U.S. petroleum imports.
The higher blend would help the U.S. ethanol industry, hard hit by the recession and a drop in crude oil prices in 2008 to nearly $30 a barrel. Many companies were forced into bankruptcy and some production was idled.
(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by David Gregorio)
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKN039221620100303?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=11700
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