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A Wisconsin ethanol producer says the new state law eliminating the need for separate hoses to dispense E15 was overdue. Erik Huschitt is the CEO and General Manager for Badger State Ethanol, and he is also the Board President for the Wisconsin BioFuels Association. He says, “It was really a limit to access to the market that was a burden that should not have existed.”
Huschitt tells Brownfield the new law eliminates unnecessary regulation that made it difficult and expensive for retailers to offer more ethanol blends. “What it did limit is, it limited really a lot of people’s desire on the retail side to offer E15 due to the fact that they would need infrastructure that had its own hose and usually its own pump and its own bay.”
The old Wisconsin rule through the Department of Ag, Trade, and Consumer Protection required gas pumps installed after February 1st of 2009 to dispense mixtures greater than E10 through separate fueling nozzles and hoses. The new law allows blends up to E15 to use the same dispensing equipment.
The new law also requires retailers to have at least one fueling nozzle and hose that dispenses only gasoline containing 10% or less ethanol, and new stickers on fuel pumps clarifying where the E15 blends may be used.
Huschitt says Wisconsin was the last state that did not have a law allowing the use of one hose to dispense E15. “While this won’t solve the issue overnight, our hope is it’s just one less hurdle to jump to get E15 at the retailer so the consumer can be the benefactor of a more affordable, higher-octane higher-performance fuel.”
Governor Tony Evers signed the new law last week.
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