Menlo, Iowa — President Joe Biden has taken a temporary step to ensure E-15 can be sold year-round.
Biden spoke about the decision to a crowd of invited guests inside an ethanol plant near Menlo Tuesday afternoon.
Biden says energy prices are the major driver of inflation right now.
Biden made the announcement in a storage barn for dried distillers grain — a by-product of ethanol production and hosts left a 300 ton pile of it inside for the event.. Michael Walz is a Vice President for POET, the company that owns the facility Biden visited.
POET operates 33 ethanol plants in eight states, including the facility south of Ashton on Highway 60.
Emily Skor is executive director of Growth Energy, a trade association for ethanol producers. Skor says the president has made a commitment to find a permanent fix.
In 2019, the Trump Administration moved to allow nationwide E-15 sales from June to mid-September. A federal judge ruled in favor of the oil industry’s challenge of that move and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. That means the litigation path for addressing this issue is closed and Skor says the industry is pursuing two options: EPA action or passage of a bill in congress.
Iowa Farm Bureau president Brent Johnson says ethanol is a major market for one of Iowa’s main crops and Biden’s announcement helps stabilize the ethanol industry.
The Iowa GOP purchased billboards on Biden’s route out of and back to the Des Moines Airport with messages about inflation and high gas prices. Republican office-holders issued written statements generally praising Biden’s move to promote E-15, but they raised other issues. Congresswoman Ashley Hinson called for more security at the southern border and Senator Chuck Grassley called it a crisis situation. Governor Reynolds issued a thank you to the president for what she described as welcome news on ethanol, but Reynolds said the Biden Administration has more to do to address high energy costs.
