Biden to announce, in Iowa, waiver to allow E15 summer sales

DES MOINES — President Joe Biden’s administration plans to issue an emergency waiver that will clear the way for the E15 blend of ethanol to be sold this summer, senior White House officials told reporters Monday.

Biden will make the announcement at an event scheduled for this afternoon at a biofuels processing plant in Menlo, a small town of 345 people, about 45 miles west of Des Moines in Guthrie County.

Iowa is the country’s top producer of corn and corn-based ethanol.

Currently, the E15 blend of ethanol cannot be sold between June 1 and September 15. Former President Donald Trump’s administration in 2019 issued a federal rule allowing for the year-round sale of E15, but a federal appeals court struck down the rule in July of 2021 based on procedure.

During Monday’s press call, senior White House officials said the Biden administration’s plan for an E15 emergency waiver is designed to address rising gas prices, which they attributed to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. The administration plans to cite the strain on the U.S. fuel supply caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine as justification for an emergency waiver to allow the sale of E15 this summer, officials said.

In addition to calls from the renewable and biofuels industries, a bipartisan group of Iowa leaders has called for Biden to issue the emergency waiver.

“(Today), President Biden will have the perfect opportunity to stand with Iowa farmers by allowing summer sales of E15,” Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said in a statement issued Monday. “I’m hopeful (today) the President will finally embrace cleaner, cheaper homegrown biofuels that reduce dependence on foreign sources and empower American workers to solve the energy crisis. I know Iowa biofuel producers can ramp up production and provide affordable, low-carbon biofuels to the country if the president allows summer sales of E15.”

Biden is scheduled to deliver his remarks this afternoon at a bioprocessing plant operated by POET, a biofuels company based just across Iowa’s northwestern border in Sioux Falls, S.D., that operates 12 facilities in Iowa.

This is Biden’s first trip to Iowa since his election in November 2020. It is a part of his administration’s tour of the country to promote rural infrastructure investment and projects.

“I have always believed that for America to succeed, rural America must succeed,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House on Monday. “Since taking office, my administration has focused on building pathways to the middle class for rural Americans in rural America — including investing in rural infrastructure and rebuilding the communities that feed and fuel our country.”

Iowa will receive roughly $5 billion over five years in new federal funding under the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the White House said when the bill was being approved by Congress.

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