Publication

Congress acted on several Clean Air Act (CAA) issues in legislation that it passed and sent to the President in late July. The most significant of these issues, dealing with ethanol and reformulated gasoline (RFG), were addressed in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, H.R. 6 (P.L. 109-58). The act eliminates a requirement that RFG, used in the nation’s most polluted areas, contain at least 2% oxygen. In its place, the act requires that the total gasoline supply contain increasing amounts of a specific oxygenate, ethanol, which is generally made from corn. Under the bill, use of ethanol will more than double by 2012.