Rep. Neyer pushes for fuel parity in all 83 counties

State Rep. Jerry Neyer introduced legislation today to repeal Michigan’s summer gas mandate, bring the state’s fuel standards in line with federal law, and open the door to year-round E15 sales in every county in Michigan.

“A gallon of gasoline should not be legal in one county year-round and a citable offense in another on the same July afternoon,” said Neyer (R-Shepherd). “We need fuel parity across our state.”

Since 2007, Michigan law has required gasoline sold in eight southeast Michigan counties to meet a stricter summer vapor pressure standard than the rest of the state. The requirement sits in the Motor Fuels Quality Act, and in plain terms it keeps E15 off the pumps in those counties for the whole summer driving season. Nationwide, only nine counties carry a mandate like it.

E15 typically runs 10 to 20 cents per gallon cheaper than standard gasoline, and it carries more ethanol made from Michigan and Midwest corn. Neyer, who chairs the House Committee on Agriculture, said the mandate costs drivers at the pump and costs corn growers a market at the same time.

The state has spent this year working around the boutique fuel mandate rather than fixing it. In March, Neyer sent a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer urging her to follow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s emergency waiver of summer blend requirements. Forty-eight hours later the governor issued an executive order suspending the standard through July 1, and in June Rep. Donni Steele carried a resolution extending that relief through the end of the summer blend season.

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