Senator Charles Grassley says he’s glad President Joe Biden is “finally listening” to what he and Senator Joni Ernst have been saying for months, upon the president’s announcement made in Menlo, Iowa last month to lift the ban on sales of E15 this summer.

Senators Grassley and Ernst were absent from Biden’s first visit to the state since elected president, as well as the state’s three Republican Congressional representatives and Governor Kim Reynolds. Grassley tells KCII he didn’t attend the announcement on April 12th because the chamber was in session, though the Senate’s website shows they adjourned the morning before to resume the following week, “I don’t think I was invited anyway and so I would be very happy to help the President promote ethanol. I’ll thank him for doing that, it might make people who use E15 get 10 cents a gallon cheaper, so it’s some benefit to the consumers but it doesn’t bring much certainty to the ethanol industry because this is just for this year.”

Grassley said President Biden should extend the year-round sale of E15 beyond this year. President Donald Trump allowed this in 2019, which the federal court then overruled, claiming the Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its authority, and the Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal this January. E15, a gasoline blend that contains 15% ethanol, is banned in some states from June 1 to September 15 because it is believed to contribute to smog during the warmer weather.