Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig is urging the U.S. Senate to advance legislation that would over-rule longstanding EPA guidelines and let E15 be sold nationwide all year long.
“Whether it goes in a Farm Bill, goes as a stand-alone or goes in a supplemental spending bill, I don’t particularly care as long as it moves,” Naig said. “It’s just too good of an opportunity to help the farm community, but also help consumers at a time when we absolutely need it.”
The year-round E15 policy was removed from the Farm Bill before it passed then House this spring, but in May, the House passed a stand-alone bill on the topic. “We always believed if it got an up-or-down vote in the House that it would pass,” Naig said, “and sure enough, it did.”
The bill has stalled in the Senate, though and the Republican chairman of the Senate Ag Committee has proposed a Farm Bill that does not include year-round E15. “Last year, Iowans saved $60 million in fuel costs just by choosing E15 over E10,” said Naig, a Republican who has been Iowa’s ag secretary for over eight years. “I think we need to set aside politics here and get this done.”
E15 supporters are weighing whether accepting concessions on some refinery exemptions could be the key to getting year-round E15 into the spending package congressional leaders are developing. The House already added policies, like a photo ID requirement for voting to the legislation. EPA air quality regulations prohibit E15 from being sold from June 1 until September 15 due to smog concerns, but the EPA has waived that rule this summer.
(By Brent Barnett, Brownfield Ag News)