U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) joined the National Corn Growers Association’s “Cobcast” to discuss her bill securing the year-round, nationwide sale of E15. During the episode, she emphasized the vital role ethanol plays for Nebraska producers and rural communities. She highlighted her decade of advocacy for permanent access to E15 and the bipartisan support and momentum her legislation has received.

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Fischer Joins the National Corn Growers Association’s “Cobcast”:

Dusty Weis: Hello and welcome to the Cobcast: Inside the Grind with the National Corn Growers Association. This is where leaders, growers and stakeholders in the corn industry can turn for big picture conversations about the state of the industry and its future. From the fields of the Corn Belt to the DC Beltway, we're making sure the growers who feed America have a say in the issues that are important to them, with key leaders who are shaping the future of agriculture. So make sure you're following this show in your favorite podcast app, and sign up for the National Corn Growers Association newsletter at NCGA.com.

I'm Dusty Weis, and today we are talking about revving the engine on nationwide year-round E15 and the opportunity to get this across the finish line in DC once and for all. We've got the honor to be joined by Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska today, who recently reintroduced legislation to make year-round E15 a permanent reality for fuel consumers and corn farmers. We'll look at how we got here and why NCGA believes that this is the moment for E15. And joining Senator Fisher today is NCGA CEO Neil Caskey. So Senator Fischer, Neil, good morning.

Senator Fischer: Good morning.

Neil Caskey: Good morning Dusty. Great to be back with you on the show. Even better to have a guest like Senator Fischer. She is a fantastic leader, a fantastic American, and one of the biggest champions for corn that we have in Congress, in fact you were a recipient of our President's Award a few years back because of all the things that you do on behalf of Nebraska and America's corn farmer. So, Senator, welcome to our podcast.

Senator Fischer: Well, thank you, Neil, very much. It is, really a pleasure to be able to visit with you a little bit today about a topic I love, and that is agriculture and what we can do to help our ag producers across not just my state in Nebraska, but across the country as well.

Dusty Weis: Well, Senator Fischer, we appreciate your making the time to join us from DC today. So the hustle and bustle of Capitol Hill, we might hear in the background from time to time. Good to have you. You grew up in Nebraska. You're certainly no stranger to agriculture issues, and I'm sure a lot of that experience centers around the ranch where you and your husband raised your family, the same ranch that two of your sons now operate. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Senator Fischer: Well, I met my husband, Bruce, at the University of Nebraska. I fell in love with a rancher, so leaving Lincoln and moving to the sandhills of Nebraska just was a wonderful life. Wonderful life. Being able to raise our three sons on the ranch. And now we have grandchildren on the ranch. So fourth generation Nebraska sandhills ranchers, right there in the heart of the sandhills.

Dusty Weis: Well, Senator, anybody who's spent time in Nebraska knows that its heart is in its rural community. So before we move on to ethanol, in your experience, tell us a little bit about the state of the rural economy in Nebraska and across the country right now.

Senator Fischer: You know, we are obviously worried about corn prices right now. We are concerned about the costs, the input costs that our producers are facing. Cattle prices are pretty good. They're pretty high now. But also the input costs, they're high. It's been estimated by USDA that we're going to see over $5 billion decline in those cash receipts this year for corn farmers. I'm worried about that. Of course, when we hear about tariffs, all of us get a little nervous. I want to see just what President Trump, his plans for that, his ability to use that tool of reciprocal tariffs as a negotiating tool for him so we can make good deals for ag producers. In fact, I just had a meeting yesterday with Secretary of Ag and the EPA administrator. So we're talking about a number of things that can happen, opportunities that can be helpful for ag producers across this country.

Neil Caskey: And Senator, I hope you know just how grateful we all are here at corn for all you've done for us and in general, and certainly ethanol in particular. We are especially grateful for your leadership on E15 or unleaded 88, as we call it at the pump. And if we could go behind the scenes just for a minute on your bill. And we all know that working together is the only way that you can get anything done out there and in Congress. And we also know that you do that really well. And so can you tell us a little bit about the bill and how it came together with your fellow co-sponsors?

Senator Fischer: Well, obviously, ethanol is important for the state of Nebraska. It's important for our corn producers in the state. And that means it's important for our rural communities as well. So in 2015, it was the first year that I introduced the year-round sale of E15. We want to continue to build our coalition. You know, we started out we had senators from corn states, Republicans and Democrats came together in order to promote the idea and to the bill itself, to be able to have that year-round sale of E15. We’ve grown our stakeholders. We have grown the participants in what I call this good movement to be able to have year-round sale of E15. This last year, we added the American Petroleum Institute, we added refineries. My good friend, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who's from the state of West Virginia, a coal state, and she chairs the EPW committee. She is on as a co-sponsor last year and again this year. So we have strong support here, came really close, really close last year to getting this done. And we're working hard to continue to promote this bill and get it done this year.

Dusty Weis: Senator, certainly we’re familiar here at NCGA with the benefits of a year-round E15 blend. But as you're out there looking for co-sponsors, bringing in organizations like API, beyond just supporting rural economies and supporting growers, there are a lot of other benefits there that we can use to turn this into a really big tent issue as well, right?

Senator Fischer: Exactly. Using E15, it's good for the environment. It's good for our ag producers, good for our rural communities, but it's also great for consumers. You know, that's a message I think that sometimes we don't do a good enough job of promoting that E15 is good for consumers. The price is lower at the pump. So we need, I think, to be better messengers in trying to get that across to not just the stakeholders, not just people we and businesses we want to bring into our coalition, but to consumers as well.

Dusty Weis: Neil, from your perspective, in the heart of corn country, why is this legislation so important to growers?

Neil Caskey: Yeah, and I'll just add to what the senator was saying about this coalition. I remember and hats off, Senator, to you and your colleagues, for bringing that broad-based coalition together. We started making rounds because of the way that you fashioned this bill. We were making the rounds on the hill. We had corn, we had ethanol, we had the petroleum industry. We had retailers that were together for the first time. If you go back ten years, you know, you we don't want to relive those battles of the past. It's so refreshing to be working as a liquid fuels industry like we are right now. And Senator, I just want to say thank you for giving us that opportunity. And I think the first office that we went into together a few years back really raised some eyebrows in a very, very positive way. I know that that takes a lot of pressure off of you and your colleagues. When we are working together as a liquid fuels industry like we are right now on E-15 and that has made a tremendous difference. So thank you for bringing that together.

Dusty, I know you asked about why this is important to corn. Obviously this is about a third, ethanol is about a third of our demand. And so, you know, you've worked with us and you know that our focus is all about demand creation. Given the state of the farm economy right now. And obviously the Senator just talked about that, obviously we're in a tough spot and our focus on demand creation needs to intensify by a factor of about 100. So we're expecting another really big crop this year. USDA is forecasting about 94 million acres of corn going into the ground this spring. Depending on what happens with the tariff situation, that number could go even higher. So finding a home for all of that corn or non-liquid gold, as President Trump referred to it, which I love this past summer is going to be a really, really high priority for us.

Every 1% increase in the blend rate increases corn demand by about 500 million bushels. And so just to be clear, this E15 bill is not a mandate. Not at all. It just addresses the outdated regulations that prevents fuel retailers from selling year-round E15 across the US. And we talked about the benefits to the consumer, it's about 20 to 25 cents less per gallon than regular gasoline. And so we think given that discount, we think folks when they get an opportunity to do so that they are going to select E15, they're going to buy a lot more of that fuel. And that in turn is going to finally drive corn grind. That's why this bill is important to the American corn farmer, Dusty.

Dusty Weis: Senator, certainly here in the Midwest we’re familiar with the benefits of ethanol. But as you work to now build support among your colleagues in Congress to get this bill over the finish line, are you finding it's getting purchase with folks that are not from the Midwest, from some of those key allies that we need to build outside of the Corn Belt as well?

Senator Fischer: We have to be better messengers. And this applies not just to corn farmers, not just for this particular bill, but as people in agriculture, we have got to drive the narrative, how important agriculture is to this country. It is national security and how important it is for our environment. A lot of times we don't blow our own horn. So every ag group that comes into my office, I always say to them, you have to drive the narrative. You have to be messengers. I have been so excited when I see young people, young families that are coming back to the farms, coming back to their ranches because they need to be the face of ag producers. They need to say, we live on the land, we take care of our land, we manage our resources appropriately and as good, good stewards, we take care of our land. We take care of our water. We take care of our livestock. That has to be a message.

So as we deal with people here in Washington, I think it's helpful for all of our ag producers out there to continue to talk to their representatives. No matter where you live, talk to your representatives, talk to your senators, and talk about the positive things with agriculture. That makes it easier then for me to reach out to other offices here in the United States Senate, to senators who don't have ethanol. They have really not a big connection to agriculture. When they hear from people back home, that makes it easier for me here in Washington.

Neil Caskey: Well, Senator, when I think about a state that can tell the story of agriculture, no one does that better than Nebraska. I say that as a Missouri Tiger fan and graduate. But obviously, as you well know, your college is the Cornhuskers, and so I don't know if there is a more appropriate tribute to the American corn farmer than the University of Nebraska. So thank you for that. We've got some catching up to do at the University of Missouri, but hopefully that will happen. Senator, can you tell me how your bill is getting traction in the Senate right now?

Senator Fischer: You know, I think it was extremely important when we saw President Trump on January 20th, his first executive order, it touched on E15 and the importance of having E15 in the mix. When we talk about promoting American energy, that is extremely important. Obviously in President Trump's first term, he was very supportive of ethanol and the year-round sale of E15. We had a few meetings in his office at that time. We saw the EPA about a month ago. They released a rule that we can have that waiver, we can have that sale of E15 in the summer of 2025. That's helpful, but that doesn't address our main concern. We want to make the sale of E15 permanent.

So earlier I had referenced to you about having a meeting yesterday with Secretary Rollins and Administrator of the EPA, Lee Zeldin, and this is what we were talking about, the sale of E15 and how we can work to promote that, how we can get this done sooner rather than later. They are both good advocates for us. So we need to thank our ag secretary and also the administrator of the EPA. They're being good advocates with us. President Trump has been great in the past. He started off the administration, this current administration, with that good sign with the executive order. And now it's up to us to be able to continue to be good advocates, to continue to push to get this done sooner rather than later.

And that's what we're trying to do. You know, I had Senator Chuck Grassley with me, who brought really a good perspective to ethanol from his years of experience there. Senator Roger Marshall, he came in to the meeting yesterday with some graphs and showing the importance of ethanol in the mix of how corn is marketed. Joni Ernst was there at the meeting as well. So to be able to continue to be out front, to continue to be vocal about this, I think that's going to be extremely important and bring our stakeholders on board and have them be out front and vocal as well in order for us to get this done.

Dusty Weis: Ultimately, Senator, the year round E15 blend, if it passes Congress and we're hopeful that it will right now. But then it comes down to the president's desk for a signature there. Given these signs of support that we've seen so far from the administration, we feel pretty confident that this would get a stamp of approval?

Senator Fischer: I am pretty confident. I'm very confident that the president would be signing this bill, and that's why it's important to get it to him. It's the way we need to get this done. As I said, the chairman of the EPW committee, Senator Moore Capito, she is a co-sponsor of my bill. That's helpful as well to expand that coalition. So it's going to continue to take work. This is now my 11th year of working on this. And gosh we got to get it done. Got to get it done guys.

Dusty Weis: Well, certainly the great strength of the National Corn Growers Association is that its members are legion. So, Neil, for our members who are listening right now, what can they do to help get this bill over the finish line and help out Senator Fischer and her colleagues here?

Neil Caskey: Yeah, because we don't, Senator, we don't want you working a 12th year on this bill.

Senator Fischer: But, but now, Neil, I will if needed. I will if needed. But like I said, we want to get this done this year.

Neil Caskey: And we know that, that's what I would say, Dusty, that the very first thing that folks can do is to be sure that we thank our champions, like Senator Fischer, for carrying our water out there in Washington, DC on this particular issue. And certainly a lot more for that matter. I guess I will model that behavior, Senator, and I will say on behalf of the Corn Board and all the members of the National Corn Growers Association, sincere thank you for all of your leadership on our issues, and certainly ethanol as well. I guess the second way that listeners can help is to reach out to their respective delegations and ask for co-sponsors of both bills in the House and the Senate. And so we have a call to action right now that is supporting that. So does the American Farm Bureau Federation. So this is obviously important to all of agriculture.

And so we are working as part of a broad based coalition of agriculture, energy, etc.. And so trying to drive co-sponsors of this bill. Senator, we just wrapped up a call to action. It was the the most successful one in the history of NCGA. And so we have gathered about 9000 supporters of E15 in just a handful of days that have signed a letter that we will be sending to congressional leaders and certainly sharing with you that demonstrates the support that exists right now in rural America, actually just across all of America for E15. And so, Senator, we are doing all we can to help you out there, get this bill done. And, we are just grateful for everything that you're doing right now on E15 and looking forward to the day when we can celebrate this win.

Dusty Weis: Neil, stepping back to the big picture for a second here, because it's that time of year, of course, when growers are looking to the year ahead and making their plans to plant, we've certainly heard a lot from the new administration about how the president is prioritizing domestic markets. E15 is a great opportunity to boost that, but it's top of mind for a lot of growers right now that this week the president imposed some tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. How is that affecting growers’ minds right now?

Neil Caskey: We're certainly following that. We like all of agriculture, we are an export-dependent industry. At corn, about 15% of our crop is exported. Most of it goes into Mexico. We send a lot of ethanol north into Canada. And so obviously when tariffs involving those trading partners, plus China, where we don't actually send a lot of corn these days, you know, certainly that does put us a little on edge when you think about just the state of the farm economy right now, you know, that has us nervous. So we also appreciate that the president is, as you've said, prioritizing domestic markets. And so, you know, we think ethanol is one of those markets that needs to be prioritized. We cannot be the dominant energy player that I know this administration wants us to be without ethanol.

And so this is a very important bill right now for farmers that are about to plant a lot of corn this year and a little bit nervous about having enough markets to obviously sell all that corn into. And so it would be a wonderful gesture and signal to the American corn farmer by getting year round nationwide E15 done.

Senator Fischer: Thank you Dusty. It is always just a privilege. It's a privilege to work with you, with your organization, with all of your members. I enjoy it tremendously. So thank you for your support. Thank you for reaching out to your members and having that call to action. We are going to continue to work hard to get it done.

Dusty Weis: And thank you for listening. We hope you'll join us again next month for another episode of the Cobcast: Inside the Grind with the National Corn Growers Association. If you're on X, you can follow @NationalCorn for more news and updates from NCGA, visit NCGA.com to sign up for the association's email newsletter and make sure you're following this show in your favorite podcast app.

The Cobcast is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association with editing by Matt Covarrubias, and it's produced by Podcamp Media, branded podcast production for businesses PodcampMedia.com. For the National Corn Growers Association, thanks for listening, I'm Dusty Weis.