Why is ethanol suddenly available in Maine?
The introduction of ethanol in gasoline is not a state requirement. Ethanol is available in the Maine gasoline market for several different reasons. Those reasons include the current fuel market and federal and state legislative actions as discussed below: • The current fuel market . Maine Public Law 650 provides a state fuel tax incentive of 1 cent per gallon of E-10. A federal tax incentive for refiners and distributors exists for certain gasoline blends of ethanol (in the case of E-10 the blenders credit is 5.1 ¢ per gallon of ethanol) , and has created an industry incentive to use higher volumes of ethanol; however, that being said the market is fluid and could change at any time should blending with ethanol prove to be less cost effective than other fuel formulations; • National Renewable Fuels Standard Congress passed in 2005 the Energy Policy Act which mandated an increase in the amount of renewable fuels used in gasoline nationally. In 2006 the national requirement was met by a
