After supporting legislation to expand availability of higher-ethanol fuel nationwide, a lobbying group for the oil industry Tuesday said it’s had a change of heart.
The American Petroleum Institute told key lawmakers in a letter that it’s now opposed to the “Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailers Choice Act,” a bill that would lift seasonal restrictions on the sale of 15 percent ethanol fuel across the country.
API cited a changing regulatory and market landscape, including measures that discourage the purchase of foreign-made biofuel to meet federal biofuel-blending requirements for transportation fuel.
“Over the past eight months, legislative, regulatory and market developments have created a substantially different operating environment for refiners and fuel suppliers,” said API President Mike Sommers in the letter to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate.
