Greenhouse gas emission benefits of E15 in California

As part of its effort to reduce harmful air pollutants, California requires the sale of reformulated gasoline—most of which contains 10% percent ethanol by volume. Not yet adopted by the state is a 15% percent ethanol blend by volume (E15) for vehicles with model year 2001 or later, approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In this white paper, ICF's transportation and energy expert provides an analysis of the potential impacts on greenhouse gas emissions if the state were to increase the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline from 10% to 15%.

With many cities and states looking to meet aggressive GHG reduction goals, this paper has critical real world implications: the transition to E15 coupled with lower carbon intensity ethanol could be equivalent to removing at least 700,000 cars from the road.

Download this paper for additional insights, such as:

• Three trajectories for the carbon intensity of ethanol, modeled out to year 2040.
• Potential benefits to California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard program.
• The share of corn crop that would be required to implement ethanol fuel production.