03/18/26 Afternoon CommStock Report – The Ethanol Industry is Being Played in DC

I attended the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit early this month. I was there 10 years ago when candidate Trump told the Summit that he would be the best ethanol president ever. He had visited Des Moines again recently and was met by ethanol industry representatives who presented him with a full-page ad that the industry had placed in the Des Moines Register promoting E-15. He signed it. Unfortunately, that was not the bill, just an ad.  He said that he would sign that too if Congress sent it to him.   Such a bill is under (miss)management in Congress and there was hope that it could be enacted yet this month …but deadlines have passed and nothing has really changed. Small refineries want more exemptions and if they are willing to make a deal one could be made. We are at the point where everyone understands that year-around nationwide E-15 should be offered to consumers. It is a high octane domestically produced fuel that can be sold at a better price. Year-around nationwide E-15 is fuel deregulation needed to give consumers a better choice. Even the opposition knows that. They know that consumers will choose E-15 as they do now…