Authorizing the year-round sale of E15 would benefit farmers, consumers and the economy. Mike Davis has more on progress being made toward making year-round E15 a reality.
Davis: On Wednesday, the US House
passed legislation authorizing the sale of E15 gasoline year-round. Faith Parum, economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, says she’s cautiously optimistic.
Parum: The House has passed year-round E15, so this is the first step in getting this fully out of the door, but we'll see what the Senate has to do and then, of course, the President will still have to sign the bill, but it's a meaningful first step here.
Davis: Parum says much work remains to be done to get E15 permanently authorized.
Parum: Next, the bill will head over to the Senate side. The Senate will have to come up with their version of the bill, and we'll see what they come up with, and then they'll put the two versions together. It'll be signed into law by the President, and then we can have year-round E15.
Davis: Meanwhile, there was more good news for farmers and ranchers on the biofuels front.
Parum: The EPA has finalized the
Renewable Fuels Standards for the upcoming years, for 2026 and 2027, and so that'll be great for farmers. It's going to be some of the highest renewable volume obligations that we've ever seen under the program. So that'll have steady demand for our conventional fuels like ethanol, and really increase some of those demands, like biofuels.