California Likely to See E15 Retail Sites Within a Year: Industry Official

SAN DIEGO — California is likely to see E15 retail sites by this time next year, an industry official said last week.

Jeff Wilkerson, government policy and regulatory affairs manager at Pearson Fuels, was asked during a panel at the 14th Annual OPIS LCFS & Carbon Markets Workshop about the possibility of E15 by the next presidential election.

“Yeah, I think so,” he replied. “Will it be seen a year from now? I’m still going to say yes on that.

“I think certification efforts will speed up, but we do have to do the rulemaking that could take a year.”

Wilkerson acknowledged that “we don’t have clarity on how you would offer it, how you would label it, are you competing with majors for gasoline?”

“It’s just not clear right now,” he added.

California moved in October to permit usage of the fuel blend, with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature on Assembly Bill 30 ending its long-running status as the final state without access to the higher blend of ethanol.

Pearson added a retail location in Fresno, it said in November, expanding its E85 network in the state to 450 sites.

Reporting by Michael Schneider, mschneider@opisnet.com; Editing by Jordan Godwin, jgodwin@opisnet.com