KDSN RADIO News
Ethanol industry leader ‘not optimistic’ congress will reach E15 deal
An ethanol industry leader says he doubts Congress will pass a bill anytime soon that would allow the year-round sale of fuel blended with 15% ethanol.
Yesterday was the deadline set for a vote in the U.S. House on a bill to end the EPA’s anti-smog rule that bars E15 from being sold in the summer months. “I am not terribly optimistic that we’re going to see legislation before summer on year-round E15,” Renewable Fuels Association president Geoff Cooper said. “I hope I’m wrong about that. I hope this council produces legislative text that has a path to passage out of both the House and Senate.”
The House Rural Domestic Energy Council, led by Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra, has been negotiating with lawmakers who represent states with oil refineries to try to find a compromise on E15 after House GOP leaders removed a mandate for year-round E15 sales from a budget bill that passed in January.
Cooper spoke with reporters about E15 during the National Ethanol Conference that’s underway in Orlando, Florida. “The trick with E15 is obviously we have to find a path,” Cooper says. “We have to find a way to thread the needle and get legislation through Congress and to the president’s desk…That is not an easy thing to do.”
Cooper is skeptical of Feenstra’s effort to craft a bill on E15 that includes new guidelines for the EPA waivers oil refineries may seek to avoid the ethanol-blending mandate. “We need to see the path to get that done,” Cooper said, “because I’m not sure I see it from where I sit today.”
On Tuesday, Feenstra told The Des Moines Register the snowstorm that hit Washington, D.C., delayed the arrival of lawmakers who were part of E15 negotiations, and a deal may be introduced in the House next week. Iowa advocates for ethanol are expressing frustration. This morning, the Iowa Corn Growers posted a message on social media saying “corn prices are falling…rural economies feel the pressure,” and it’s time for Congress to “finish the job” on E15.
