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1 submitted via: July 7, 2016 To: Re: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Transportation and Air Quality 2000 Traverwood Drive Ann Arbor, MI EPA-HQ-OAR Thank you for the opportunity to provide the following comments on the subject rulemaking, Renewable Fuel Standard Program: Standards for 2017 and Biomass-Based Diesel Volume for The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) is a major international trade association representing the manufacturers and their suppliers of small engines, utility vehicles, and consumer and commercial outdoor power equipment. These products are commonly found in most American households and include products such as lawnmowers, garden tractors, trimmers, edgers, chain saws, snow throwers, tillers, leaf blowers, generators, and power washers. While small engines and outdoor power equipment consume a small percentage of the nation s fuel supply, their ownership by the American consumer is ubiquitous. Additionally, many of these same products are made for commercial use by contractors, farmers, utility crews, parks and recreation, states and municipalities, and fire and emergency rescue personnel. Many of these products have long service lives which can exceed a decade, resulting in an estimated 250 million legacy products currently in use. As a preface to our specific comments on the subject rule, by EPA s own admission the proposed 2017 target for total renewable fuel is ambitious, requiring the market to respond and adjust above and beyond current capacity. While it is duly noted that this standard falls short of that allowed under statute, it nonetheless poses new and heightened misfueling risks to small spark-ignited engines, which is of central concern to the manufacturers we represent and the consumers they serve. If finalized, the subject standard will require that the average ethanol content of gasoline sold in 2017 will exceed 10%, through the expanded availability and sale of E15 and E85. This proposed standard will put virtually all new and current small spark-ignited engine products at risk of harmful misfueling, due to the lack of adequate Federal consumer warnings and education against the use of non-approved fuels. Our members understand and appreciate the work EPA has done on energy independence, reducing demand on foreign sources of oil while increasing the use of renewable fuels. Our members offer a full range of products powered by different sources or fuels including battery, electric, propane, CNG, diesel and gasoline electric hybrids, solar and biodiesel, as well as gasoline with 0 to 10 percent ethanol. OPEI members are not anti-ethanol, but outdoor power equipment and small engines are not designed, warranted, or EPA-approved to operate on gasoline containing more than 10% ethanol. Current small engine design parameters are based on the EPA-mandated certification fuel, which today allows for only up to E10. Our members further have a strong environmental record achieved through consistent product innovation and strong stakeholder relationships with EPA, California ARB, and many other agencies around the world. Specifically, our industry has made exceptional progress in its use of recycled materials, the reduction of engine emissions, and the overall energy efficiency of industry engines and powered products. These advances have all benefited and in-part resulted from strong cooperative relationships with regulatory agencies, assuring that products comply and many times exceed government requirements. Specific to the subject proposal for 2017, OPEI is concerned with the intent to require the expansion of renewable fuel as a percentage of gasoline above 10%, when virtually all products manufactured by our members, and those currently in service, require E10 or less. The following comments are consistent with those filed by OPEI on the prior year(s) proposal 1, combining our concerns with the market entry of non-approved fuels and an insufficient 1 EPA-HQ-OAR ; FRL OAR 341 South Patrick Street - Alexandria, VA PH: FAX:

2 Misfueling Mitigation Plan (MMP) regulation, and its negligible impact on consumer awareness of safe fuel choices for small spark-ignited engines and outdoor power equipment. The market presence of E15 and other mid-level ethanol blends, without adequate labels and misfueling mitigation controls, unfairly puts manufacturers and their customers at risk. These include substantial warranty claims for illegal acts of misfueling (beyond the manufacturer s control), particularly as E15 and other mid-level blends become more prevalent in the marketplace. When consumer products are damaged, it harms the long-established relationships between our member manufacturers and their customers as well as their well-deserved brand recognition. The risks to manufacturers also include potential exposure to alleged claims for personal injury and CPSC or EPA product recalls and product damage. In regard to EPA s past and current implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard, OPEI has consistently argued for an increased agency role in misfueling mitigation. These concerns continue to be expressed with the support of a compelling set of facts about the current market place. a) EPA s E15 partial waiver(s) deem said fuel as non-approved for use in small spark-ignited engines. As recognized by EPA in the 2010 and 2011 E15 partial waiver decisions, all small engine powered products are only EPA approved for use with gasoline blended with 10% ethanol or less (E10). This recognition is based on mutually accepted Department of Energy (DoE) data 2 which validates that the introduction of alcohol in excess of 10% is inappropriate for small engines with open loop fuel systems, as it introduces excess oxygen resulting in increased heat, engine damage, and failure. The above-mentioned DoE data is further supported by testing conducted by engine OEMs in our industry, as well as other affected small engine manufacturers. b) The risk to engines includes not only those currently being manufactured, but as many as 250 million currently in service. With the exception of no more than 3 of the over 800 small spark-ignited engine families certified by EPA in 2015, all are approved to run on E0-E10 gasoline only. Beyond the new products being sold each day, OPEI also estimates as many as 250 million legacy products owned by U.S. households and businesses, all of which require gasoline with no more than 10% ethanol to run properly and safely. It is also important to note that many of the commercialgrade and higher price point products manufactured by our members will likely be in service for decades to come. c) Consumer knowledge of safe retail fuel choices is low. In both 2015 and 2016 OPEI contracted with Harris Poll to measure consumer knowledge about retail fuels and its limitations with respect to different products requiring its use, including of course outdoor power equipment. The 2016 report from Harris Poll 3 provides recent consumer responses to specific relevant questions from a sample of slightly more than 2,000 U.S. adults. The report further provides trends and variances from the similar poll conducted in 2015 from a similar size population, and generally both sets of data tell the same story. This data is especially notable in the context of our contention that EPA must do more to mitigate misfueling. Highlights of the report include: i. only 19% of respondents have seen or heard any communication within the past 12 months about ethanol; ii. only 31% of respondents understand that gasoline blends in excess of E10 are harmful to certain engines, and only 5% understand that gasoline blends in excess of E10 are not EPA approved for use in certain engines; iii. 60% of respondents assume that any retail fuel is safe for any engine. An OPEI release on the 2016 survey results can be found online at OPEI: New OPEI Survey Shows Education Sorely Lacking on Higher Ethanol Fuel Blends. d) Fuel pumps are by design increasingly confusing to the consumer, and inadequately labelled. The subject proposed rule makes frequent mention of the positive impacts of Federal dollars from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, now in excess of $100 million, to fund necessary infrastructure upgrades to facilitate the 2 Effects of Intermediate Ethanol Blends on Legacy Vehicles and Small Non-Road Engines, Report 1 Updated, February 2009, National Renewable Energy Laboratory 3 A Survey about Ethanol, Fuel and Gasoline Pumps 2

3 sale of mid-level blend (>E10) gasoline. In many cases this money is used to install blender pumps, which expand the fuel choices while at the same time minimizing the investment required of fuel retailers. To the detriment of consumers, the use of blender pumps only increases consumer confusion playing on the many pre-conceived opinions as highlighted in the noted polling. The issue of price is an important factor when considering the need for effective and consistent misfueling mitigation, since consumers largely make choices based on price. In June of 2014, OPEI provided comments to a rulemaking by the Federal Trade Commission to improve the effectiveness and consistency of fuel pump labelling. 4 Important to the FTC proposal and central to the OPEI s comments was the need for clear and consistent labelling with a focus on the quality and safety aspects of fuel choices, instead of appealing to consumer instinct to focus on price. These improvements are especially important in light of the increasing use of blender pumps, as fuel choices may exceed five selections at a single pump, all subject to different approved uses. The OPEI urges intra-agency cooperation where possible which could further strengthen the existing MMP regulations for E15 through the clear and uniform labelling of pumps, focused on the safety and performance limitations of engine powered products. Specific to EPA efforts, OPEI does not believe that the current EPA E15 label serves as an effective tool in mitigating the misfueling of outdoor power equipment and small engines with E15. We urge EPA to require increased clarity and uniformity in misfueling mitigation plans (MMP), beyond the approved label. In developing its misfueling mitigation regulations, EPA recognized that the E15 label design should generally be uniform for easy identification and utility. Significant variations in label design could thwart the goal of associating the label with E15 and making the label readily recognized and understood. (76 Fed. Reg , July 25, 2011) OPEI is concerned that multiple MMP approaches with non-descriptive and inconsistent labeling and notification requirements will further confuse consumers. For example, Configuration 2A of the Renewable Fuels Association s (RFA) EPA-approved MMP requires new signage that advises of the availability of non-e15 fuels at the retail station, but outlines no requirements for the placement, language, size, color or font of the notification. OPEI urges EPA to require that the same considerations established for EPA s own E15 label apply to all MMP labels and notifications. This is of heightened importance with regard to the use of blender pumps, used to dispense E10, E15, and other mid-level blends from a shared nozzle and hose. EPA s misfueling control regulation has been insufficient, as it has approved MMPs for such blender pump use, without mandating signage/labelling to protect against the heightened risk of misfueling under this retail scenario. e) EPA RFS misfueling mitigation efforts are insufficient as compared to prior shift to unleaded gasoline While different in many respects, the market introduction of renewable fuels and unleaded gasoline are both clear paradigm shifts which created clear divisions in consumer choices of general fuels. In the case of unleaded gasoline, the Federal government importantly invested in a fail-safe approach through the required incompatibility of redesigned pump nozzles and vehicle intakes. In the case of the RFS, the statutory intent is similarly aimed at creating clear divisions in the general gasoline supply, again with general limitations on current and legacy product uses, and yet the agency has taken a much more secondary role to market forces. f) Misfueling concerns must be evaluated taking into consideration the views of engine manufacturers, fuel producers, fuel retailers, and consumers, equally. While no substitute for an enhanced EPA MMP rule, the OPEI in 2013 at the request of its members established an educational program and product labelling materials for use with their respective dealers and retailers. The Look Before You Pump program, which is hosted at is intended to educate consumers about the fuel needs of their small engine and outdoor power equipment products, and navigating the choices at the pump. The messaging specifically reminds consumers to use E10 fuel or less in these products, as represented on the attached bulletin. This program is now in use by OPEI manufacturers, dealers, and national retail outlets as an authoritative resource on choosing the right fuel at the pump, and the overall importance of fuel choice and quality for the small engine product. We encourage the agency and the public to review and use these materials as appropriate. Now three years since the OPEI campaign began, our cited polling clearly demonstrates that our efforts are having a minimal impact on consumer education, largely due to our industry s limited resources and reach, and in no small part in the face of other stakeholder messaging at odds with the OPEI campaign. As EPA continues to implement the RFS, we urge that all stakeholder efforts be evaluated for their factual merit, and EPA takes a balanced approach in considering all opinions. 4 Federal Trade Commission, Fuel Rating Rule Review, 16 CFR Part 306, Project No. R

4 As a technologically advanced and innovative manufacturing industry, our members benefit from regulatory clarity and long-term predictability to make the products U.S. consumers want and depend on each day. For our sector, this in large part depends on the fuels used to design and certify engines, and then those available at the neighborhood filling station to power those products. In the implementation of the RFS, such predictability is impossible, creating uncertainty among manufacturers and more importantly the American consumer. In the proposed rule s Executive Summary, Outlook for 2018 and Beyond, (ref. FR / Vol. 81, No. 104, p ), the agency states: We are currently considering and evaluating regulatory provisions that should enhance the ability of the market to increase not only the production of advanced and cellulosic biofuels but also the use of higher-level ethanol blends such as E15 and E85. DOE and USDA are continuing to provide funds for the development of new technologies and expansion of infrastructure. All of this, as well as actions not yet defined, is expected to continue to help clear hurdles to support the ongoing growth in the use of renewable fuels in future years. In the spirit of this explicit commitment, OPEI urges EPA to also focus on the further study of fuel impacts on small spark-ignited engines and the promulgation of an impactful Misfueling Mitigation Plan rule. In closing, and consistent with our comments to the previous RVO proposals(s), we again most critically urge EPA to subject this and all future RFS implementation policy to additional, specific and robust rulemaking, taking into consideration the following: i. a renewed focus on strengthening the Misfueling Mitigation Plan regulations to address blender pump use, including Federal intra-agency efforts where possible; ii. a commitment to the development and market entry of drop-in biofuels, suitable for safe use in all legacy and new small engines and products; iii. the indefinite availability of E10 fuel as part of the general fuel supply, dispensed from dedicated pumps. Again, thank you for consideration of our comments, and the opportunity to present the viewpoints of our industry. Best regards, Daniel J. Mustico Vice President, Government & Market Affairs dmustico@opei.org attachments OPEI Look Before You Pump sample bulletin 4

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