Midwest senators back ethanol, push year-round E15 sales

Five Midwest senators used a June 3 Wall Street Journal letter to push permanent, year-round E15 sales, casting the 15% ethanol blend as a way to ease fuel costs and strip away the last regulatory barriers that still limit it in the summer driving season. The letter, signed by Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, and Roger Marshall of Kansas, was a direct response to a column that criticized the ethanol industry.

The senators said they hear regularly from constituents about high gasoline and diesel prices, and they argued that E15, a blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline, can help lower pump prices for consumers. Their message was broader than a routine show of regional support. It was a coordinated pressure campaign aimed at forcing Congress, the EPA and the White House to lock in year-round, nationwide E15 access.

That push landed as the House had already passed year-round E15 legislation in May 2026, while the Senate was heading toward a difficult vote on the same issue. For Midwest ethanol backers, the timing matters: a permanent E15 mandate would open a larger, steadier market for corn-based ethanol and reduce the annual scramble over summer waivers, labeling and state-by-state workarounds that have kept the fuel from moving freely across the country.

Grassley and Ernst have made the same argument repeatedly in earlier letters and legislation in 2023, 2024 and 2025, linking E15 to rural economies, farm incomes and fuel-price relief in Iowa, the nation’s top ethanol-producing state. In that sense, the latest letter was less a fresh policy proposal than a renewed attempt to turn long-running Midwest lobbying into a legislative result.

The immediate effect on gasoline prices is likely limited, but the political effect is clearer. E15 remains a useful election-year message for senators from Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, where ethanol policy still carries outsized weight with corn growers and fuel buyers alike. If Congress moves, the bigger shift would be in ethanol demand and blending economics, not just in campaign messaging.