INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Corn Growers Association (ICGA) thanks President Joe Biden for approving a waiver to allow E15 gasoline – gasoline that uses a 15 percent ethanol blend – to be sold this summer. Biden made the announcement April 12 from a POET ethanol plant in Menlo, Iowa. A lower-cost and lower-emission fuel blend, E15 is often marketed as Unleaded 88. Ethanol is a major player in Indiana’s economy, and it is especially important to Hoosier corn growers.

Indiana ranks as the fifth-largest producer of U.S. ethanol – generating more than 1.2 billion gallons per year. The Hoosier State produces nearly 8 percent of the total U.S. ethanol output. There are 14 ethanol plants in the state. Collectively, these ethanol plants consume about 47 percent of Indiana’s total corn crop – more than 461 million bushels.

“Ethanol adds billions of gallons to the U.S. fuel supply every year, lowering demand for high-cost oil while increasing total fuel available to American motorists,” said ICGA President Scott Smith, a farmer from Windfall, Ind. “Ethanol has been priced an average of 80 cents less per gallon than unblended gasoline at wholesale through March, and drivers currently save up to 20 cents or more per gallon where E15 is available.”

With several factors driving gas prices higher, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and farmer leaders across the country asked Biden to extend the use of E15 to hold down prices at the pump. Farmers asked their members of Congress to support continued availability of E15, sending thousands of messages in recent weeks and backing bipartisan Senate and House advocacy for the action.

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper said replacing 30 percent of the U.S. regular pump gas with E15 would not only replace oil imported from Russia, but it would also eliminate the need to import oil from many other countries. At present, the United States produces about 15 billion gallons of ethanol per year.

“Corn growers thank President Biden for ensuring drivers continue to have access to a lower-cost fuel choice and for acknowledging how renewable ethanol helps reduce prices, lower emissions and improve our nation’s energy security,” said NCGA President Chris Edgington, an Iowa farmer. “Farmers are proud to contribute to cleaner, less expensive fuel choices.”

 2021 court decision resulting from oil industry efforts to limit the growth of higher ethanol blends was set to end full-market access for E15 beginning this summer – unless the Biden Administration or Congress initiated a waiver. Now ICGA seeks a more permanent solution.