Grassley Delivers Fervent Call to Action on E15, Pushes for Speedy End to Biden Phosphate Duties

Grassley Delivers Fervent Call to Action on E15, Pushes for Speedy End to Biden Phosphate Duties

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a lifelong family farmer and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, spoke in strong support of E15 at a committee hearing today, urging Congress to quickly pass legislation allowing for year-round, nationwide E15 sales. Grassley also pressed the Trump administration to issue clear regulations on 45Z and to eliminate the Biden Phosphate Duties.

Grassley has pushed for years to enact E15 into law, and President Trump endorsed year-round, nationwide E15 during a trip to Iowa this year.

Grassley additionally submitted questions for the record regarding biofuels, California's Proposition 12 and grazing incentives.

VIDEO

On the need to pass E15:

I think I'm going to submit my questions for answers in writing and give you some of my frustrations, and for the benefit of Iowa farmers and for the benefit of my colleagues here, some of the frustrations I have.

And I'm going to start with a lot of things that have already been talked about here by my colleagues, but E15 and the importance of biofuels, and Iowa being the number one producer of biofuels, with about 50,000 jobs implied with it, and a tremendous market for our corn.

One of the frustrations I have is dealing with this, [the] refineries and the RINS and things like that that are holding up getting E15 by legislation. Because the frustration comes from the fact that for the last year or two years of Trump 1, and now Trump 2, and then the four years of Biden in between, we had E15 by presidential waiver, and still have it by presidential waiver. And [in] not any of those six or seven years did I hear one peep out of refineries, but somehow, you're going to make it law.

And I think somebody figures I can get my hands in the cookie jar and benefit from it, because I know that some of these mid-size refineries are billion-dollar businesses, and I'm not hearing from any small refinery that's not making some money.

So, what's the big deal?

But it's holding it all up, and we're not going to get that $14 billion that the economist for the Corn Growers Association says we're going to get, if we can't have E15 nationwide, year-round, if we don't get it by law. Because you're never going to get the retailers to invest in the pumps that it takes unless they know it's permanent law.

And I just don't understand it, but we got to get it done. Now, there's some good talk that we're getting close. But we were there in February until some refineries wanted to get their hand in the cookie jar, and then we don't get it in an appropriation bill.

So, then they tell me, "Well, there's a good chance it can pass the House of Representatives as a separate bill if they get this final agreement." But you're never going to get through the United States Senate as a separate bill. It's got to be put someplace.

And that could be a five-year Farm Bill. It could be money for the [Iran] war when we supplement our defense expenditures. It could be this housing bill that's on the floor right now, but there's no reason that we can't get it done [because], and this is all going on at the same time that we got people in the Congress and maybe even in the administration talking about, "We're going to give a handout to the farmers of a certain number of billion dollars, in addition to the 12 that has always been there. "

And how many times have we heard farmers in Iowa say we don't want our money from the federal treasury, we want it from the marketplace, and that's what it's going to take.

On the need for clarity in 45Z regulations:

I heard my colleague from Iowa talk about 45Z. We have some regulations for 45Z but it hasn't covered agriculture. And the only thing I want the administration to keep in mind when it comes to regulations for farmers to qualify for 45Z, don't make it as egregious as they did in 40B. Be a little more realistic when you require farmers to benefit from their cut down on carbon.

On the importance of eliminating the Biden Phosphate Duties:

My last thing deals with tariffs. I don't understand if we're losing $1 on corn, we're losing $2 on soybeans, if we can get the cost of production down a little bit, there's no reason we should have tariffs on phosphate coming out of Morocco when one company in the United States has 80% on the market, there's no reason we should have tariffs on anhydrous ammonia coming out of Trinidad when two companies dominate the market in the United States, and there's no reason we should have any tariffs on potash. So, you've heard my opinion.

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