The biofuel industry’s quest to make higher-ethanol fuel available at gas stations year-round emerged from a procedural tangle in a House committee setting up a Wednesday vote on the floor.
The House Rules Committee on Tuesday cleared the way for lawmakers to consider legislation lifting seasonal restrictions on sales of E15, which proponents predicted will pass the full House — although prospects in the Senate remain complicated and uncertain.
The panel’s quiet approval of a single-sentence resolution to decouple the ethanol issue from a five-year farm bill marked a shift in strategy for the Republican majority.
Initially, leadership had the E15 measure riding along the farm legislation that the House passed two weeks ago, intending to merge them after passage before relaying the bills to the Senate.
