Yesterday, several National Marine Manufacturers Association engine manufacturer members sent a letter to President Trump expressing support for replacing the Renewable Fuel Standard with a new national octane standard. NMMA has worked with the administration and congress regarding the recreational boating industry’s problems with current RFS and higher ethanol levels in gasoline.

“We are pleased that Members of Congress and your administration are considering replacing the broken RFS with a new fuel neutral program,” the letter read. “However, our industry and America’s recreational boaters have a number of priorities that need to be considered and addressed in order to ensure a new octane standard is not detrimental for our industry.”

The letter continued, explaining that marine engines do not have performance or safety problems running on high-octane fuel such as 95-98 RON. If the higher octane is achieved with higher ethanol additives (above 10 percent) the recreational boating industry would continue to face the same problems it is currently having with the additives.

The full letter is available here: http://nmma.net/assets/cabinets/Cabinet515/Marine%20Engine%20Letter%20RE%20High%20Octane%20Proposal_06.25.2018_FINAL.pdf