Session Ends, Legislative Update
I really don't want that corn in my gas tank.
After my last post dealing with ethanol in gas I was interested to receive several comments from people in the ethanol industry contesting the remarks I passed along from the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and from Stump, the legislative liaison for ABATE of Colorado. These guys were pretty vehement that I didn’t know what I was talking about (“You are an idiot if you believe any of this bulls***.”). I replied that I was passing along what I hear from the AMA and I trust what the AMA tells me on things like this. But I also said I would try to dig deeper and do a follow-up addressing what they were saying.
Well, that is still my intention but we’ve been out of the country and busy since we got back and we’re leaving again in a few days for another trip, so I haven’t had the time yet. In the meantime there are a few more related things I wanted to pass along.
Of course, as you probably know, the legislative session ended. Here’s what Stump said about that.
In my last LegTeam update I urged you to write the Senate Finance Committee Members to oppose SB-175 (E15 Fuel Bill) and show up on Thursday, 4/14 for the Committee Hearing. Thanks to those who wrote and to Bruce, Bear, and Harry for showing up for the hearing. I also sent e-mails to the committee members and actually had meetings with 3 of the 5 members. All 3 agreed to oppose the bill. As it turned out, Sen. Grantham, the sponsor of the bill, requested the bill get laid over till 4/12. In essence, it killed the bill since the session ends on 4/11. So even though we stopped the increase in the amount of E15 being brought into Colorado by killing this bill, which would have given retailers a tax credit to sell E15, there is a much bigger problem with E15 on the National Level.
Bruce, Bear, Harry and I met with Sen. Neville after the hearing and he told us about a Federal grant from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expand the number of fueling pumps that supply E15. Colorado could get $600,000 to install 7 tanks and 28 pumps at 7 gas stations. Of course the money has to be met 1:1 by the CO Department of Agriculture or private partners. Here are 2 links so you can read more about it:
www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/energy-programs/bip/index and www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome?contentid=2015/10/0300.xml .
I also found out Kum & Go is the company pushing to introduce E15 in Colorado, so if anybody wants to boycott them, feel free.
Related to this, as noted in the action alert I sent out yesterday, a bill has been introduced in Congress to promote wider availability of E15. On March 22, US Rep. David Loebsack (D-IA) introduced H.R. 4673 (the Renewable Fuel Utilization, Expansion, and Leadership Act – REFUEL Act) which would provide federal grants to purchase and install new or existing infrastructure for E15. It has 4 cosponsors already (2 from MN, 1 from IL, and 1 from WI) and with President Obama being from the 2nd largest corn producing state, is there any doubt who’s pushing for E15? Tell your US Representative to oppose H.R. 4673.
Of course, what I’m much more interested in is this thing with needing a transponder to ride in HOV lanes without getting fined. Stump hasn’t sent anything out about that so I’m still in the dark. And I haven’t had time to contact him to ask.
The legislature did pass and the governor signed the bill to do an audit at the Colorado Department of Transportation, so that could have an impact on the MOST program.
I’m feeling like this is kind of ragged. I’ll get back more in the swing of things when we get back from this next trip and I finally have time to really settle in again.
Biker Quote for Today
“Why ride?” Why breathe?
Tags: ethanol in gas
May 19th, 2016 at 12:52 pm
re Ethanol 15 – BMW manual for 2016 R1200RS stipulates a maximum of 10% ethanol approved (warning do not use 15% ethanol fuel)