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Minnesota farmer and USGC vice chair on latest biofuels buzz

A Minnesota farmer and leader with the U.S. Grains Council is thankful EPA has closed the door on dozens of small refinery exemption requests.

Chad Willis is a corn and soybean grower from Willmar who currently serves as USGC’s vice chair.

“The RFS was written and it’s law, and the refiners should have to follow the law. And the EPA had kind of been letting them slide by.”

The EPA recently denied more than 50 so-called “gap year” small refinery exemptions.

Willis tells Brownfield that means more ethanol will be blended domestically.

“And if we aren’t using the gallons, that’s why like at U.S. Grains we’re pushing the ethanol overseas.”

Responding to reports of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order to ban gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035, Willis acknowledges there is a future for electric vehicles.

“But nationwide, I don’t know where they feel we’re going to get the electricity to run these cars. California already has rolling blackouts, so I’m not really sure if they thought that all the way through.”

He says higher blends of ethanol would go a long way toward California achieving its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and USGC is working to get E15 into that market.