Iowa and Illinois congressional representatives are advocating for the year-round sale of 15% ethanol-blended gasoline to ease pump prices and support agricultural markets amid the US’s ongoing war with Iran. An Illinois environmental non-profit claims expanding E-15 sales will add to air pollution and band-aid a hemorrhaging corn market, which makes up a vast majority of farmland in Iowa and Illinois.
Moline Congressman Eric Sorenson (D-17th) introduced an amendment to the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, referred to as the Farm Bill, that would include year round sale of E-15. “We need certainty for farmers and lower prices at the gas pump. We had an opportunity to do both of those things by allowing the year-round sale of E-15 nationwide to be included in the farm bill,” said Sorensen in a statement. That amendment failed to be included in the final version passed out of the House Agriculture Committee by a vote of 34-17. Rep. Sorenson voted no citing the exclusion of year-round E-15 sales and funding cuts for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Davenport Congresswoman Mariantte Miller-Meeks shared her support for year-round sale to the House Rules Committee back in January.
“Year‑round E-15 lowers fuel costs for millions of Americans and provides the certainty our farmers need to keep feeding and fueling the world,” Rep. Miller‑Meeks said. “I won’t stop fighting until year‑round E15 is the law of the land, and our farmers have the certainty they need and deserve.”
Earlier this month, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker sent a letter to Congress urging them to allow year-round sale of E-15. In the letter, Gov. Pritzker stated, “From the devastating effects of tariffs to ongoing global instability, Illinois farmers are being forced to shoulder rising costs while losing export markets to foreign competitors. Expanding year-round E-15 sales would increase domestic demand for ethanol, broaden markets for corn, and provide the kind of certainty farmers urgently need.”
The state’s farm bureau is also advocating for the year-round sale. Brian Corkill, a farmer in southeastern Henry County and a member of the board of directors for Illinois Farm Bureau, said the blend, containing 15 percent ethanol derived from corn, accounts for about 35% of all corn grown in the United States. He claims the percentage is higher in Illinois.
“We're always out-producing what demand is for corn. So this is a way of increasing demand for corn and providing a clean fuel option,” Corkill said in an interview with WVIK. “I don't know the reasons why … there is a waiver for summer use of E-15. I think it's been proven that it can be safe to be used year round. We haven't gotten to the point where there's been any legislation or anything to make it year round. So we keep living off these seasonal waivers every year to be used in the summertime, but not gotten to the point where it's year round.”
Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a temporary emergency fuel waiver to allow nationwide sales of E15 during the summer for a fifth year in a row. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement granting the summer waiver starting May 1st will “reduce unnecessary costs and uncertainty and ensure that gas prices remain affordable for all Americans through the summer. This emergency action will provide American families with relief by increasing fuel supply and consumer choice.”
However, not everyone is agreeable to the year-round sale of E-15. Robert Hirschfeld, Director of Water Policy at Prairie Rivers Network, a non-profit organization located in Champaign, Illinois, said the use of E-15 impacts air quality.
“[T]he reason that there's even a cap for why E-15 isn't allowed year round is because that ethanol has an ozone problem,” Hirschfeld said in an interview with WVIK. “So the Clean Air Act restricts summer E-15 sales because higher ethanol blends can increase smog during summer ozone season. So that restriction exists to protect public health. Now, Illinois is one of seven states that already allow year round E-15. They're all major corn producing states that allow year round E-15. One interesting fact is that the American Lung Association has found that every single one of those states have seen ozone levels increase in recent years. And Iowa and Illinois, the two heaviest corn ethanol states, have had the worst ozone increases in the entire country.”
Hirschfeld said the increase in ozone levels is not the only problem made worse by E-15, but it is a factor. He notes the ethanol plants also produce toxic air emissions, including formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds.
“And then beyond that, you've also got a whole number of environmental costs that often don't get factored into the equation. So water quality being top of mind,” Hirschfeld said. “So more corn demand means more intensive corn acreage, and that means more nitrogen fertilizer and pesticide runoff into Illinois waters, which means more harmful algal blooms in our waters and more fertilizer going all the way down into the Gulf of Mexico and creating an even bigger gulf dead zone. So corn is one of the most nitrogen intensive row crops. And as it stands, you know, we're nowhere near meeting our goals for nitrogen pollution. And so E-15 will not help that water pollution. It will only make it worse.”
Corkill states farmers including himself are using cover crops to lessen the use of nitrogen fertilizers.
“I am less reliant on those types of applied nutrients, I would say, because I'm keeping more in the field,” Corkill said. “So when I go in and terminate my cover crop, I can utilize the nutrients that are in that cover crop as it decomposes because they haven't gotten into the tile water and they haven't gotten to the tributary, they haven't run off of the soil surface.”
Hirschfeld claims at best 10% of Illinois’ acres utilize cover crops.
“We generally pursue what's known as voluntary conservation, which means that we either ask nicely for farmers to prevent their polluted runoff, or we pay them to implement these practices,” Hirschfeld said. “And frankly, there's just not enough money to pursue a voluntary, pay farmers not to pollute policy. You're talking about billions of dollars. It's just not in the budget. So, yes, cover crops, riparian buffers, wetlands, all of these things can help, but you have to, implement them and you have to enforce [them]. And we've been unwilling to do that.”
Iran has been restricting access to the narrow Strait of Hormuz since the start of hostilities from the United States and Israel. That strait is a pathway for up to 30% of the world’s fertilizer. As Hirschfeld mentioned corn requires nitrogen fertilizer which is severely impacted.
Corkill said allowing year-round sale of E-15 would help consumers as the conflict continues.
“That's going to save consumers anywhere from 10 to 30 cents a gallon at the pump, which is a big deal,” Corkill said. “So there's that benefit as well. So the consumer benefits as well as the farmer to raise the corn to produce that fuel.”
Hirschfeld agrees that using E-15 can save consumers money, however, “you [have] got to consider two things. Ethanol has less energy per gallon than pure gasoline. So the more ethanol you blend in, the worse your gas mileage is. You won't get as far in a gallon. That's number one,” Hirschfeld said. “And number two is that, yes, artificial demand for corn raises prices. It raises land prices, so it raises all food prices. You may save a little at the pump with ethanol, but you're paying for it instead at the grocery store.”
During WVIK’s interview with Corkill the question of using farmland for fuel rather than food was asked. “The food versus fuel and I think a lot of people do tend to get hung up on that. But again, I just want to reiterate that it isn't one or the other. We're raising plenty to do both. So food safety shouldn't, shouldn't be a concern,” Corkill said.
Hirschfeld said as climate change continues to increase in severity the future of agriculture should move away from its reliance on fossil fuels to maintain profits.
“Ethanol is just one more way that we shield commodity crop producers from market signals that might otherwise incentivize change. Change to those diversified food production systems that are better for water, for soil, for our health, and frankly, better for the long term viability of farming and for rural communities in the Midwest,” Hirschfeld said.
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