As Biden steps up for farmers, NCGA works to advance legislation on ethanol BY BROOKE APPLETON Vice President of Public Policy, National Corn Growers Association It was like a scene out of a Hollywood movie. Just as it looked as though the oil industry had succeeded in ending consumer access to higher levels of ethanol – a biofuel that is environmentally friendly and cuts gas prices – during the summer months, President Biden makes an eleventh-hour decision to use his emergency powers to allow for consumer choice. Yet, this wasn’t something out of Hollywood; it was reality. I was pleased to travel to Menlo, Iowa, on April 12 to
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INDIANA CORN & SOYBEAN POST
watch the president tell a barn full of farmers that he would use his emergency authority to extend access to 15 percent ethanol-blended fuel, or E15, through this summer. The president’s announcement comes after two years of legal drama, in which the oil industry, looking after its own profit margin, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to end access to E15 during the summer months. A court ruled in 2021 that the EPA had acted outside of its authority, and, as a result, access to E15 was set to end over the summer months, each year, starting this June. The consequences to ending access to E15, even for a few months, would have been serious for consumers and the U.S. economy. Gas
