President Trump is scheduled to talk about energy policy in central Iowa this afternoon and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he expects to hear about corn-based ethanol and the higher E-15 blend going year-round, coast-to-coast.
Grassley says E-15 could be a $14-billion industry for corn growers, while the federal government just spent $12-billion on the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program.
“Farmers want to get their money from the marketplace and not from the federal treasury, and E-15 will do that,” Grassley says. “So I would say to him, Mr. President, you already support this. It’s a no-brainer to go for the legislation.”
Thanks to special waivers, the 15-percent ethanol blend has been available year-round in Iowa and seven other Midwestern states, but it’s not a permanent fixture in federal law.
“We have year-to-year waivers, so we actually, through six years, have had E-15 year-round,” Grassley says. “That’s better than not having it at all.”
A funding bill that was before the U.S. House last week had the language stripped out that would have allowed for E-15 sales nationwide. That move left corn growers “disgusted, disappointed and disillusioned,” according to Jed Bower, president of the National Corn Growers Association.
Grassley is urging Trump to support the original proposal.
“The reason for changing the law and the reason the president should back this is because he’s already backed it by presidential waiver,” Grassley says. “We need a law that makes year-round, nationwide E-15 because it has to have that certainty of the law to get people to invest in it.”
Bower, meanwhile, released a statement saying, “Congress is choosing to leave America’s 500,000 corn farmers behind in favor of a handful of refineries.”