New York (Platts)--21Dec2007

Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on Friday
issued a proposed rulemaking on the blending of ethanol into the state's
gasoline pool.

The oil industry, however, quickly panned the proposal and said it would
hamper the wider blending of ethanol in the state.

The industry's main lobbying group in the state, the Florida Petroleum
Council (FPC), also called for an urgent high level meeting with state
officials in an effort to get changes to the proposed rule.

The wide-ranging rulemaking did make official the current unofficial
waiver on summertime Reid Vapor Pressure in the Florida's ethanol gasoline
pool, which matches the federal Environmental Protection Agency waiver. But
other elements of the proposal appeared to have fallen short of creating an
environment that would open Florida to wider use of ethanol blends.

The oil industry's major concern is that the rulemaking creates the
likelihood that a boutique gasoline will be needed to meet state standards for
ethanol blends in gasoline for sale during the summertime.

Dave Mica, who heads the Florida Petroleum Council, the local branch of
the American Petroleum Institute, said the rulemaking "is not what the [oil]
industry and renewable fuels communities had asked for."

Mica said the proposal fell short of standards in place in other
southeastern US states like South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama
and Georgia. He described the Florida proposal as "more conservative" than any
of those states.

Mica said his group has asked for an early meeting with top state
officials, including Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, for an
"interactive" private session with representatives from the oil and renewable
fuels industries to hash out concerns about the rulemaking.

Terence McElroy, Bronson's press secretary, said the agency had not yet
responded to FPC's request, but that such a meeting was not out of bounds. "We
regularly meet with a lot of stakeholders.... The request is not unusual,"
said McElroy.

--Robert DiNardo, robert_dinardo@platts.com