(Altoona, Iowa) — The executive director of Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Tuesday, urged industry leaders and farmers at the association’s summit, to pursue expanding markets and to be wary of “looking in the rearview mirror.”  The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports leaders in ethanol, biofuels and associated markets from across the country gathered at the Prairie Meadows Event Center in Altoona for the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association annual summit, this year with a theme of “fuels of opportunity.”  Monte Shaw, in an opening session shared his observation of a divide he sees in Iowa.  “It’s a divide between people who think everything is fine, and people who think that the foundations of our rural economy are a little bit shaky,” Shaw said, admitting he finds himself in the second camp. Shaw pointed to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing a $90 billion decline in net farm income forecasts from 2023 and 2024.

That’s worse than the declines, by percentage points, in the 1980s, Shaw said. Just as biofuels delivered farmers out of the farm crisis in the 1980s, Shaw said looking ahead to new markets, like sustainable aviation fuel and increased demand for biofuels, can revive rural economies. The most immediate push is for Congress to allow the year-round sale of E15, a blend of ethanol fuel, across the country. Shaw said “It is time to fix E15 now, no more delays, no more Iowa nice, we have been patient for a decade, but quite frankly we are done waiting.”   Shaw said this action is the “near term demand driver” that would help farmers, help consumers to save at the pump “and be a vital part of American energy dominance.” To reach the growing markets, Shaw said it might require new practices like conservation farming techniques or implementing carbon sequestration at biofuels facilities, but he added “American agriculture is always changing.”

Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw speaks at the association’s annual summit, Feb. 4, 2025. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

E15 has been a push from Iowans, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, who was slated to speak at the event but had to cancel to attend the funeral of Rep. Martin Graber, who died Jan. 31st. E15 regulation was part of a proposed spending bill in December 2024 to keep the federal government operating, but the provision was scrapped in the final bill that passed.  More recently, one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders from the first week of his term ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to consider emergency waivers for the year-round sale of E15. Iowa’s U.S. senators have also reintroduced a bill, known as the Farm to Fly Act, to clarify program eligibility and definitions of sustainable aviation fuel. Sustainable aviation fuel is one of the “fuels of opportunity” that presenters at the summit said could raise net farm income again. Biofuel producers have been waiting for official guidance on a sustainable aviation fuel tax credit, 45z.