Ernst, Grassley join effort pushing for year-round E15

DES MOINES — Iowa’s Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst joined a group of U.S. senators to introduce a bill that would allow the sale of E15 year-round nationwide.

The senators, both Republicans, said the move would provide cheaper fuel to consumers and certainty to farmers and ethanol producers.

The Environmental Protection Agency limits the sale of ethanol blends above 10 percent between June 1 and Sept. 15 because the agency says they evaporate more easily in warm weather and contribute to air pollution and smog. E15 consists of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline.

But this year, President Joe Biden directed the EPA to waive that restriction, allowing higher ethanol blends to be sold throughout the summer months, with the goal of lowering gas prices for consumers.

The bipartisan group of senators that introduced the bill is hoping to make that move permanent. The proposed bill would allow for the sale of fuels with the higher blend during the summer. The group includes Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., along with 13 other Midwestern senators, including Ernst and Grassley.

Ernst, in a statement, said the bill would provide lower costs for consumers. E15 tends to be about 10 cents cheaper per gallon than fuels with a lower ethanol blend.

“Homegrown ethanol is the cheaper, cleaner option to relieve pain at the pump, and we’ve seen the benefits of year-round E15 sales right here in Iowa,” she said.

In a call with reporters Wednesday, Grassley said the move would provide more stability for ethanol distributors and keep commodity prices strong for farmers.

“It’s hard to sell stuff if you’ve got to explain to people why you can’t do it during June, July, August, and up to Sept. 15,” he said.

Iowa is the top national producer of both corn and ethanol. Iowa ethanol refineries can produce more than 4 billion gallons annually, and more than half of Iowa’s corn crop goes to ethanol production.

In letters waiving the restrictions on E15 sales this summer, EPA Secretary Michael Regan wrote E15 is required to meet the same volatility standard as E10, meaning evaporative emissions would not be increased. Regan wrote that some pollutants are higher with E15 fuel, while others are lower, but “these changes are all relatively small.”

The measure is supported by a broad range of interest groups, including corn growers, farm groups, ethanol manufacturers and oil groups.

“By ensuring uniformity across the nation’s fuel supply chain, federal legislation will provide more flexibility and result in more consistent outcomes than a state-by-state regulatory landscape,” several groups wrote in a letter to congressional leaders.

Grassley said it was surprising to see the oil industry, including the American Petroleum Institute, getting behind the bill, which would expand options for fuels with lower gasoline content. Some oil companies are getting into the ethanol business.

The legislation is also supported by farming and ethanol groups in Iowa, as well as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican. She called the introduction of the bill “exciting news.”

Reynolds was one of eight Midwestern governors, both Republicans and Democrats, to ask the EPA to permanently waive the restriction on E15 sales in their states this spring.