Prairie State Wire

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) met with officials from Growth Energy, the nation’s leading biofuel trade association, to underscore her support for ethanol production, as well as her commitment to helping strengthen our national and energy security, drive down gas prices, support our farmers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drive rural economic opportunity in Illinois and across the country.

“Investing in clean energy has a positive ripple effect for our nation,” said Duckworth. “When we prioritize homegrown biofuels, we’re encouraging job growth, prioritizing our national security, reducing gas prices, protecting our environment and securing Illinois’s leadership in the energy sector for years to come. I was glad to meet with Growth Energy today, including companies from Illinois, to discuss my commitment to clean energy initiatives, and thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, families across the country will benefit from this increased support for biofuels.”

Duckworth met with a variety of renewable energy leaders today, including several from Illinois—such as Marquis Energy in Hennepin, an ethanol production company the Senator visited last August with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk and LanzaJet from Deerfield.

Duckworth has been a local and national leader in supporting biofuels, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The Senator has been outspoken about the necessity for the U.S. to utilize agricultural feedstock for SAF in order to meet President Biden’s ambitious emissions goals and the commonsense application of the Department of Energy’s Commissioned Argonne National Lab’s Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies Model (GREET) lifecycle analysis for global and domestic SAF evaluations.

To help increase the availability of E15 biofuels, Duckworth helped introduce the bipartisan Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act and the bipartisan Next Generations Fuel Act to allow the year-round, nationwide sale of ethanol blends higher than 10 percent. Duckworth additionally helped introduced the bipartisan Home Front Energy Independence Act to ban Russian oil and expand use and production of biofuel that’s grown in the American heartland, while providing American families with a less expensive option to fuel their vehicles. The Senator also created a pilot project in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to promote the use of SAF at military installations and will continue to increase these efforts to expand the use on biofuels whenever possible in order to protect our troops and national security.

In April, Duckworth applauded the Biden Administration’s announcement that the U.S. will temporarily allow the sale of E15 gasoline during the driving season this summer to help lower costs for working Americans while providing a cleaner, more affordable option at the pump.

Signed into law last year by President Biden and championed by Duckworth, the Inflation Reduction Act provides $500 million to expand the number of service stations that offer low-carbon ethanol and biodiesel, made from Illinois corn and soybeans and also has incentives to make these low-carbon biofuels even lower-carbon than today. These climate-smart investments in Midwestern-grown fuels will also reduce our reliance on foreign oil. The bill also includes biofuels tax credits and the new SAF tax credits provisions which are a direct result of Duckworth’s leadership.

Original source can be found here.