FEATURE
President Biden Announces Summertime E15 at POET Bioprocessing – Menlo Behind the scenes of POET’s fourth presidential visit By Matt Merritt On a Friday afternoon in April, POET’s Government Affairs and Communications team learned that “someone from the White House” might be coming to POET Bioprocessing – Menlo. Four days later, on April 12, President Joe Biden stood in the distillers grain loading area amidst bales and tractors to announce approval of one of the industry’s top initiatives for 2022: an emergency waiver to allow summer use of E15. In between those two points in time, team members across POET came together to make the event one to remember for POET, the biofuels industry, and America. Price spikes put biofuels at center stage Removing the summertime ban on E15 has been an important initiative for POET and the rest of the biofuels industry for more than 12 years. In 2019, the issue was seemingly fixed for good when President Donald Trump instructed the EPA to change the outdated Reid Vapor Pressure rules that had restricted E15 use during the summer months. However, an oil industry lawsuit overturned that order in July 2021, and E15 sales would have once again been limited from June to September. Then, in February of this year, Russia invaded Ukraine, setting off a sharp rise in oil prices that exacerbated the ongoing inflation facing Americans.
