Capitol Notebook: AG Miller asks Biden for ethanol waiver

ETHANOL EMERGENCY WAIVER: Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is asked the Environmental Protection Agency to allow the sale of gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol — E15 — this summer to ease prices at the pump.

“Doing so will give the citizens of our states relief from the volatile and record-high gas prices, including price increases caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine,” said a letter from the Miller and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt to Michael Regan, EPA administrator.

Miller, a Democrat seeking re-election, joins many Republicans and ethanol industry leaders in calling for the Biden administration to use E15 to ease gas price pressures on consumers.

Air-quality regulations prohibit the sale of E15 from June 1 to Sept. 15 in many areas of the United States. The EPA has the authority to allow E15 fuel to be sold year-round when “extreme or unusual fuel or fuel additive supply circumstances exist.”

Schmidt and Miller said that “issuing the waiver would result in both lower pump prices and lower overall tailpipe emissions,” because E15 has lower emissions than E10, which can be sold year-round.

Iowa and Kansas are among the nation’s top ethanol producers.

RETIREMENT SPEECHES: Another sign the end of the legislative session is approaching is retirement speeches. However, with 18 House members retiring, Speaker Pro Tempore John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, has made some changes to keep the legislative process moving.

He asked that lawmakers simply give their retiring colleagues a round of applause and then continue with legislative activity. In the past, they were followed by reception lines with lawmakers congratulating the retiree. Wills said each speech typically takes a half- hour. However, there’s no time limit on retirement speeches.

Rep. Dave Williams, D-Cedar Falls, who has served two terms, was the first to deliver a retirement speech Monday.

GOP Reps. Cecil Dolecheck of Mount Ayr, Jarad Klein of Keota and Ross Paustian of DeWitt, and Democratic Rep. Molly Donahue of Cedar Rapids also gave retirement speeches.

DNR LAND INVENTORY: Legislation to require the Department of Natural Resources to continue to maintain the publicly accessible inventory of land managed or owned by the state that began in 2018 was approved 85-12.

SF 2323 The bill requires DNR to maintain the inventory on its website and update the inventory within 60 days of acquiring new property or acquiring a management interest in any property. It also adds reporting requirements for county conservation boards, said Rep. Shannon Latham, R-Sheffield.

The state owns about 1 percent of Iowa’s 36 million acres. There are 390,111 acres under the jurisdiction of DNR. That’s about 40 percent of the total conservation and recreation lands open to public access.

The majority — 378,526 acres — is managed by the DNR as wildlife management areas, state parks and recreations areas, and state forests. All are open to public use. More than 40,000 of those acres are lakes.

Nearly 11,600 acres owned by the state under the jurisdiction of the DNR are managed by another entity, most commonly county conservation boards.

DNR land acquisition peaked in 1990s at nearly 70,000 acres. Since then, DNR acquisitions have dropped to about 35,000 acres in each of the past two decades to less than 5,000 acres this decade.

SF 2323 was previously approved by the Senate, 45-0.

Gazette Des Moines Bureau