Governors' Biofuels Coalition

GET YER HOT HOT E15 ACTION HERE! Sen. Jim Inhofe will take to the Senate floor to opine on the need for Republicans to work together to support fossil fuels. Sources familiar with Inhofe’s thinking say he’d like to introduce amendments that would expand Sen. Deb Fischer‘s bill to allow year-round sale of 15 percent ethanol into a broader package. ME has seen a draft of Inhofe’s speech, and it makes mention of a host of Republican priorities, including altering Clean Air Act standards, killing the Waters of the U.S. rule, and rescinding the Clean Power Plan. The sources also said he’s interested in setting up a sunset provision for the conventional biofuels part of the Renewable Fuel Standard. The sources said the goal isn’t really bipartisanship so much as an effort to pull together Republicans in a larger effort than a narrow ethanol bill.

Advanced biofuels want a bigger bill, too: Mike McAdams, who runs the Advanced Biofuels Association, a trade group for mostly international advanced biofuels producers, believes the bill is an opportunity for significant changes to the RFS, including extending the advanced fuels mandate beyond 2022. “To do an E15 bill and ignore these other things adds insult to injury to address the fuels we need to address climate change worldwide,” he told ME. Meanwhile, the pipefitters union sent a letter to EPW committee leadership Tuesday arguing against the E15 bill, joining their steelworker colleagues in opposition.

Whither the mark? A committee spokesman tells ME that EPW will hold a markup on July 26, but the agenda is not yet final. Fischer told ME she had not yet asked for a vote on her bill, saying she’s “still visiting with my colleagues.” She still has a few days before she’d need to alert the committee that she wants a vote, but sources tell ME she was still short of success as of Tuesday, making it more likely that she will wait until after the August recess

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