President Trump announced Tuesday during his rally in Council Bluffs, IA, that he had directed his administration to begin rule-making that allows for the year-round use of gasoline blended with 15% ethanol or E15, reports the Des Moines Register.
The ethanol blend is now banned in the summer, a rule that ethanol advocates call outdated.
Ethanol leaders said increased adoption of higher ethanol blends could increase corn use by 2 billion bushels.
The National Farmers Union said its members were encouraged by the expanded E15 proposal, but they're concerned that it won't offset ethanol losses created through hardship waivers provided to refiners.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall says Tuesday's announcement by Trump in support of year-round E15 sales is a win for American farmers and consumers.
"After years of declining farm income, opening up markets to additional fuel choices helps create new demand that farmers desperately need," he says. "As our country has worked on breaking our dependency on foreign oil, our farmers have played a major role in helping us become more energy independent."
