(Radio Iowa) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has missed this week’s deadline to set new annual amounts of ethanol that small oil refineries must blend into gasoline. The E-P-A hasn’t set new volume levels since 2020. Monte Shaw is executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. He says, “While this is not uncharted territory for us, it’s about what is that opportunity cost? What is not happening? You know, E-10’s being sold, you kind of get stuck in the status quo of blending.”

The E-P-A has proposed extending the ethanol blending deadlines for oil refineries. The agency has scheduled a virtual public hearing on the issue this Friday, December 3rd.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katie Peikes)