After passing through the House of Representatives, year-round E15 legislation awaits action in the U.S. Senate. Rodney Weinzierl, past president of the Illinois Corn Growers, says despite some initial concern, he’s still optimistic it will get through the Senate.
“I’m optimistic that we might have a chance. Of course, you need to get the 60 votes because of the filibuster before they can even vote on anything. I think it’s helped that California has approved E15. There are a lot of states that follow their lead. It’ll come down to, we hope, the fact that it’ll make gasoline cheaper when it’s very high-priced, and it’s also good for the air and good for both consumers and farmers. I know there’ll be maybe some oil people or people that have small refineries that might have some opposition, but hopefully we’ll win out, and it’ll be in the law, and the president will sign it.”
He was in Washington, D.C., when the bill made it through the House of Representatives and was very excited when the news broke.
“I actually was out in Washington lobbying for E15 the day that they voted on it, and the day before, a bunch of us corn growers and people from Growth Energy got together, and we visited nearly every congressman in the United States. We didn’t actually talk to many congressmen, but we talked to their staff. Of course, they were very interested, no matter whether they were from California, New York, Florida, Texas, or wherever, because it was something they were going to vote on that day. So, they were taking a lot of notes, listening to us, and of course it passed by 15 votes, which we’re very happy.”