Governor Kim Reynolds is predicting President Trump will announce new ethanol production guidelines this week.
“I can’t say too much because we’re waiting to see the final wording,” Reynolds said Friday during an interview with KICD Radio at the Clay County Fair.
Reynolds flew to Washington, D.C. last Thursday for a meeting at the White House to discuss how to increase the federal ethanol production mandate. President Trump in August gave the green light to waivers so 31 oil refineries do not have to blend ethanol into gasoline. Trump has said he had to save those refineries “from certain closing” — but he’s promised a “giant package” will be unveiled to boost corn-based ethanol.
Reynolds said she “feels really good” about last week’s White House meeting with Trump and farm-state senators.
“If what we agreed on is what we see in writing, we’ll be supporting it and inviting him here to announce it,” Reynolds said.
The governor said the ethanol waivers granted to the oil industry erased any gains from President Trump’s June announcement that gasoline with a higher 15-percent blend of ethanol could be sold year-round. She says that message has been delivered.
“It’s going to have a direct impact on our famrers and our communities and our economy in rural Iowa and, you know, we helped put him there and he said when he ran for office that he supported renewable fuels,” Reynolds said. “And it was a really good meeting.”
The Des Moines Register is reporting the Siouxland Energy Cooperative in Sioux Center has quit producing ethanol — the second ethanol plant in Iowa to close down this fall.
(By Matt McWilliams, KICD, Spencer; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)