By STEVE BINDER

Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — It has been a few years in the making, but sales of petroleum gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol appears to be taking off nationally despite continued restrictions.

Announcement that more pumps are offering E15 to consumers across the country preceded even bigger news in the ethanol industry late last week: EPA officials announced on Friday they will keep renewable fuel volume mandates for 2018 at or above original proposed levels, reversing what the agency indicated it likely would do later this year.

While President Trump had indicated he supports the current limits spelled out for next year under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which mandates certain amounts of ethanol to be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had indicated the opposite. Pruitt favored some level of reduction in the mandate, he had said.

But on Friday, in a letter released by the EPA, he wrote to lawmakers that the agency would stand by the current RFS, which requires refineries to blend increasing amounts of ethanol and other biofuels into the nation's fuel supply, or buy credits from those who do.

The move was applauded by ethanol backers, who feared potential significant changes to a law that has bolstered corn growers since it was approved in 2005 and updated in 2007. Bob Dinneen, CEO of the Renewable Fuels Assoc., said the industry was “grateful for Administrator Pruitt’s epiphany on the road to the RFS.”

Also in the letter was an acknowledgement that that agency was prepared to work with Congress on the possibility of creating a waiver that would allow for the sale of E15 all year, rather than just during the summer months. Sales have been limited to the summer over concerns the higher-ethanol fuel could add to smog conditions.

The limited availability time for E15 sales has been one of the key roadblocks to increasing sales of the fuel. Others appear to be weakening; in Illinois, lawmakers recently approved a measure that transfers a per-gallon sales tax credit for the purchase of E10 fuel to the purchase of E15.

As of the beginning of the month, slightly more than 1,000 stations now offer pumps with E15 gasoline, more than triple the amount that existed just a year ago, said Chris Hogan, a spokesman with the trade group Growth Energy. Most of the new pumps are located in East Coast states, he said.

“The RFS is really the most successful energy policy we’ve had,” Hogan said, adding that he believed the EPA adopted Trump’s lead. “The President has been saying consistently … that he supports the RFS, he supports the ethanol industry and he supports the American farmers and the American heartland, who supported him throughout his campaign and as president. And, he’s really made a point of repeating that on numerous occasions.”