Lawmakers are struggling to draft legislation that would allow year-round sales of higher ethanol-blend gasoline after missing a pair of deadlines due to continued tensions between large and small refiners.
That’s drawn the ire of corn growers, who have flooded lawmakers with phone calls urging action. The National Corn Growers Association offered members a script they could use in communicating with legislators.
The NCGA, other farm groups and ethanol groups were outraged in January when language that would have allowed year-round sales of E15 — a 15% ethanol blend — was left out of key funding legislation due to opposition attributed to small refiners. As a compromise, House Republican leaders established a council of legislators charged with producing a legislative proposal by Feb. 15 with the aim of bringing a bill to the floor by Feb. 25. Both deadlines came and went with no action, with news reports citing difficulties in bridging differences between refiners on the one hand, and farm and biofuel groups on the other.
“Farmers are voicing their opinions and I love it,” Jed Bower, National Corn Growers Association president, told Chip Flory on AgriTalk Thursday. “We’ve got to continue to push, we’ve got to continue to turn the heat up and demand answers and demand action...We’ve been picked on, pushed around, bullied. We are the backbone of America and it’s time that we have stood up and said we demand answers, we demand action.”
Bower said the February deadlines never appeared realistic, but that he holds out hope for possible action in March.
Farm Bureau has estimated that authorizing year-round E15 could increase corn use by up to 2.4 billion bushels.