The USDA confirmed that farmers harvested a record-large crop in 2025, estimated at over 17 billion bushels. Corn stockpiles are also expected to climb to their highest level in eight years, driving corn prices lower.
The Renewable Fuels Association said this underscores the pressing need to eliminate the obstacles that are suppressing demand and limiting market opportunities for corn and ethanol alike. “This is a sobering wakeup call about the farm economy and underscores the need for lawmakers to take immediate action to expand markets for American corn growers,” said Geoff Cooper, RFA President and CEO. “The fastest and easiest way to shore up the growing supply-demand imbalance in the corn market is to permanently remove the summertime barrier on E15 sales and eliminate obsolete fuel retail infrastructure rules.”
He also said these decades-old regulatory barriers are literally choking off demand and shortchanging America’s farmers.
Meanwhile, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins says the administration fully supports year-round E15 sales, but it’s up to Congress to get it done. Rollins told a farm audience this week that the president’s early executive order cited year-round E15 as a solution to the nation’s energy needs, adding “while the Trump Administration has gone as far as we can regulatorily to provide EPA E15 waivers, Congress must now do its job and pass nationwide year-round E15 legislation to continue to drive domestic crop demand, a clear win-win for farmers and consumers.”
Rollins also says the EPA is trying to boost corn use through the Renewable Fuel Standard. She said “our EPA has also proposed the highest and most aggressive Renewable Volume Obligation, RVO proposal, in history, which, once final, will ensure corn, soy, and sorghum producers have a long-term certainty and a demand stream domestically. That is already helping consumer prices at the pump.”
But the proposal’s been delayed, first in the Biden Administration, and now Trump’s, with a final rule now expected as late as March.
SOURCE: NAFB News Service