EPA’s ethanol mandate could include EV credits

WASHINGTON, August 9, 2017 - Democrats hope to add a wrinkle to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that will give electric vehicle (EV) drivers a tax break. The Washington Examiner reports that so-called Electric Renewable Identification Numbers (e-RINs) would be disseminated to EVs using electricity generated from power plants that burn biogas. The e-RIN would add to the complexity of the RFS, which is intended to allow higher blends of ethanol at the pump. Jonathan Lewis with the Clean Air Task Force told the paper that the energy is counted differently for electric conversion than it is for fuel. “The question is if you use it as compressed natural gas in a vehicle, you get to count all the energy content in the compressed natural gas when it’s sold at the retail point,” Lewis said. “If you instead take that natural gas and use it as a feedstock for a power plant and use the electricity that comes out a power plant for an EV, then the amount of energy that’s counted for the RFS purposes is after the gas-to-electricity conversion.” E-RINs had been discussed as an amendment to the now-stalled Senate bill that was designed to remove restrictions on 15 percent ethanol blends.