ALTOONA — Monte Shaw, executive director of Iowa Renewable Fuels Association urged industry leaders and farmers at the association’s summit Tuesday to pursue expanding markets and to be wary of “looking in the rearview mirror.”

Leaders in ethanol, biofuels and associated markets from across the country gathered at the Prairie Meadows Event Center in Altoona for the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association annual summit, this year with a theme of “fuels of opportunity.”

Shaw, in an opening session shared his observation of a divide he sees in Iowa.

“It’s a divide between people who think everything is fine, and people who think that the foundations of our rural economy are a little bit shaky,” Shaw said, admitting he finds himself in the second camp.

Shaw pointed to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showing a $90 billion decline in net farm income forecasts from 2023 and 2024.

That’s worse than the declines, by percentage points, in the 1980s, Shaw said.

Just as biofuels delivered farmers out of the farm crisis in the 1980s, Shaw said looking ahead to new markets, like sustainable aviation fuel and increased demand for biofuels, can revive rural economies. The most immediate push is for Congress to allow the year-round sale of E15, a blend of ethanol fuel, across the country.

“Mr. Speaker, the call from Iowa cannot be more clear or more plain,” Shaw said. “It is time to fix E15 now, no more delays, no more Iowa nice, we have been patient for a decade, but quite frankly we are done waiting,” Shaw said.

Shaw said this action is the “near term demand driver” that would help farmers, help consumers to save at the pump “and be a vital part of American energy dominance.”

To reach the growing markets, Shaw said it might require new practices like conservation farming techniques or implementing carbon sequestration at biofuels facilities.

“But why should change deter us?” Shaw said. “American agriculture is always changing.”

Toward the front of the exhibition hall, IRFA had a poster board and permanent markers for attendees to sign and urge House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune to push for adoption of year-round E15 sales.

E15 has been a push from Iowans, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, who was slated to speak at the event but had to cancel to attend the funeral of Rep. Martin Graber, who died Jan. 31.

Shaw said work to get year-round E15 seems to be “one step forward and two steps back.”

E15 regulation was part of a proposed spending bill in December 2024 to keep the federal government operating, but the provision was scrapped in the final bill that passed.

More recently, one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders from the first week of his term ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to consider emergency waivers for the year-round sale of E15.

Iowa’s U.S. senators have also reintroduced a bill, known as the Farm to Fly Act, to clarify program eligibility and definitions of sustainable aviation fuel.

Sustainable aviation fuel is one of the “fuels of opportunity” that presenters at the summit said could raise net farm income again. Biofuel producers have been waiting for official guidance on a sustainable aviation fuel tax credit, 45z.

“The good news is we have made progress,” Shaw said. “Appreciation for some of the traditional biofuels is strong, but I think we have some work that remains as we seek to move into new markets like sustainable aviation fuel.”

Chris Boshart, president of Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, moderated a panel later in the day with industry leaders about future markets for biofuels, including sustainable aviation fuels, carbon sequestration markets and further collaboration with other liquid fuels.

Boshart said many of these markets are driven by global desires to reduce environmental footprints and biofuels producers and feedstock growers need to adhere to those desires if they are to access those markets.

“Biofuels brought the American economy out of the stagnation of the 1990s and they powered us through the Great Recession of the 2010s, and they could reverse the recent downtrend in the ag economy if we choose to let them,” Boshart said.