Congresswoman Ashley Hinson. (photo from Hinson’s office)
Members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation are praising a move by the Biden administration to issue a last-minute emergency waiver to allow the sales of E-15 gasoline during the summer driving season.
Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion says she is glad to see the waiver happen. “This is great news. It’s gonna save families money at the pump. It’ll help with as I said energy security in our country and of course, supporting our Iowa economy,” Hinson says. Current EPA guidelines prohibit the sale of E-15 from terminals in about two-thirds of the country after April 30th.
Senator Joni Ernst tweeted that the hard work in pushing for the waiver paid off — and it’s time to permanently approve the use of E-15 throughout the year. Hinson agrees. “I want to say thank you to the administration for taking this necessary step that we’ve all been advocating for,” Hinson says. “I think you’ve heard me say a time or two that I think we need the all of the above energy strategy, so I will continue to push for EF-15 to be sold year-round permanently so that our hard working farmers and producers have much-needed certainty.”
Senator Chuck Grassley says the Triple-A survey finds the 15 percent blend of ethanol in gas costs about ten cents less a gallon than the E-10. Grassley says it’s a way to help drivers with high gas prices. Governor Kim Reynolds released a statement that calls the E-15 waiver “a huge win for Iowa farmers and our ethanol industry and proves that even our biggest adversaries can’t ignore the advantage biofuels brings to our country’s economy and national security.”
Congresswoman Hinson says the E-15 waiver comes on the heels of the negotiations that kept five key biofuels tax credits from rolling back. She says the entire Iowa delegation was in lockstep as they pushed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to keep the credits. “I think it was very critical that we had an open line of communication, and he could understand where we were coming from as a delegation. I think it was very clear that in those conversations, multiple conversations over the course of the last week, leadership did realize we were not going to cave,” Hinson says.
She says they had to make it clear how important biofuels are.”We made the point about this is about our economy in Iowa, this is about jobs. This is about protecting farmers, and we should not be moving forward on this policy to take Iowa farmers for granted in the process,” Hinson says. “So again, the whole idea of delegation remaining in lockstep and ensured our success.”