For decades, ethanol has been a combustible topic in Washington, D.C. Interests representing farmers and ethanol producers often clash with the petroleum industry.

Farm groups and some members of Congress are worried that the HPO in crop insurance revenue policies could be eliminated or weakened when the bill is debated.

Almost a decade after the EPA approved the sale of E15, the industry hopes to push beyond that 10% so-called blend wall by promoting E15 at the pump and lobbying EPA to ease its sale.

With crop prices depressed, the best solution for a struggling farm economy would be allowing expansion of 15% ethanol-gasoline blends, said Jeff Broin, the founder and CEO of POET.

Is this a welfare program or an insurance program, asks Kansas State University economist Art Barnaby.

E15 is now sold at more than 1,300 gas stations in 29 states, including many in the East that are outside of rural areas in the Corn Belt.

Ethanol and biodiesel plant leaders gathered at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit had much to celebrate. The ethanol industry exported a record 1.3 billion gallons of the fuel last year.

Revenue Protection guarantees you a level of revenue, based on that price guarantee multiplied by your farm’s average yields, called annual production history (APH).

Argentina, which is lowering its own export tariffs, is an exception. It is reopening biodiesel export markets to Europe.

Thursday’s USDA crop production and supply and demand reports seemed to favor soybeans with a slight decrease in estimated U.S. yields and a lower ending stocks estimate.