2021 Media Coverage
 

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PRESS RELEASE: The Fuel Choice Coalition Strongly Opposes Government-Imposed Fuel Mandate that Eliminates Choices and Raises Gas Prices on Iowans

 

Des Moines Register: Farm interests, fuel retailers battle over Gov. Kim Reynolds' plan to require higher ethanol, biofuel blends

“A new group called the Fuel Choice Coalition...says the legislation would reduce consumer choice, raise prices for Iowa motorists and cost retailers at least $1 billion to upgrade their pumps, tanks and other infrastructure to meet the mandate.”

Cedar Rapids Gazette: Kim Reynolds' proposal for ethanol mandate forms unusual political battle lines

• “A coalition of retailers, wholesalers, fuel distributors, transportation groups and others have formed the Fuel Choice Coalition for the specific purpose of opposing the governor’s legislation. The coalition issued a statement calling Reynolds’ proposal ‘a strict mandate on the fuel industry that eliminates choice, raises fuel prices on consumers, and harms rural Iowa businesses.’
 

• “This time is different — in no small part due to the fact that the coalition believes the required equipment upgrades would cost Iowa retailers a collective $1 billion.”
 

• “FUELIowa agrees renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel are critical to our economy. We have long shared a goal to expand our infrastructure to move more biofuels across the state,’ Ronald N. Langston, president and chief executive officer of the organization that represents businesses across the spectrum of Iowa’s fuel industry, said in a statement. ‘However, approaching this issue by way of a government-imposed mandate is the wrong road for Iowa to take and harmful consequences will follow. We strongly urge the legislature to oppose this mandate which will force Iowans to pay more at the pump, eliminates choice in our fuels, and threaten hundreds of small businesses and the people they employ.

Story was also picked up in:

Mason City Globe Gazette

Sioux City Journal

Quad City Times

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Iowa Capital Dispatch: Governor’s ethanol mandate has some powerful groups fuming

• “CEO Ronald Langston of FUELIowa, for one, is fuming. In an interview, Langston said Reynolds developed the legislation with virtually no input from convenience stores and other retailers, at least from his group. He said the state’s powerful agriculture lobby had the most say on the wording. ‘We don’t tell them what kind of corn and soybeans to plant,’ Langston said of the agricultural interests pushing the bill. ‘Yet, in our case they are telling us what kind of fuel we will sell and how we are going to label our pumps.’”
 

• “Langston said his association of fuel retailers supports biofuels and expanding the market. But Reynolds’ approach could cost retailers as much as $1 billion in upgrades. That means customers would pay more for fuel, he added. ‘This is a bad bill,’ said Langston. ‘It’s moving us in the wrong direction. It has an admirable goal (to expand biofuels markets). But as it is written, it will put a number of our businesses out of business.”

“We don’t think enforcing a government mandate that tells us what kind of fuel to sell is the way to go,’ Langston added.”
 

• “The Fuel Choice Coalition formed to oppose the bill. Its members include the FUELIowa association of retailers, Kum & Go, Casey’s, Kwik Star, and the Iowa Motor Truck Association, among others. The group opposes the legislation, saying it limits choice, will increase costs to consumers and will lead truckers to buy their fuel outside Iowa.”

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Story was also featured in:

Marshalltown Times Republican

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Jeff Angelo on the Radio: February 17, 2021

“Ron Langston of the Fuel Choice Coalition expresses opposition to a state ethanol mandate and listeners respond.”

​Brownfield Ag News: Reynolds’ Proposed Biofuels Mandate Causing Division In Iowa

• “But FUELIowa CEO Ronald Langston tells Brownfield they would rather see an incentive-driven legislative process. ‘The fuel industry has created, working with agriculture (and) without any mandates, over $1 billion-worth of investment and sales in the biofuels arena.”
 

• “FUELIowa is part of the newly formed Fuel Choice Coalition that opposes the mandate.  Members include retail chains Casey’s, Kum and Go, and Kwik Star.”

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Progressive Farmer: Governors Pushing Higher Biofuel Blends in Iowa and Minnesota

• “Countering the farm groups, the Fuel Choice Coalition, led by the convenience stores and truck stops, state the legislation would raise prices for Iowa motorists and costs retailers at least $1 billion to meet the requirements for pumps and other infrastructure. Delia Meier, vice president of I-80 Group, which owns the Iowa 80 Truckstop in eastern Iowa, told the Register that truckers would simply pass by Iowa to get their fuel.”

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Opinion: Fuel mandate would limit consumer choice, hurt rural Iowa businesses

Steve Demmer, Demmer Oil Co, Dubuque Telegraph Herald

• Increasing the sale of higher blended fuels is a shared goal, but the fuel mandate proposal facing our Legislature is the wrong approach. House Study bill 185 and Senate File 549 raise costs to both businesses and the consumers through restricted market competition. If this bill is implemented, it will first mandate B11 by this April and B20 by April 2024. Winter months, the mandate will be B5

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The Challenges of Upgrading the Fuel Distribution Network

Mark Cobb, Cobb Oil Company Inc., WHO Radio, The Big Show

PRESS RELEASE: The Fuel Choice Coalition Responds to Fuel Mandate Amendment: A Bad Deal at the Pump Made Even Worse for Consumers and Iowa Businesses

Proposed amendment would increase government control of fuel choices, impose even more restrictions and requirements on small businesses with zero additional infrastructure support

Higher Prices and Less Freedom Under Iowa’s Ethanol Bill

Bonny Clark, Opinion, The Gazette

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Fuel Mandate Not the Correct Route
The Daily Nonpareil, Guest Opinion by Doug Coziahr, Nebraska-Iowa Supply Company, Omaha, Iowa

Iowa State Senate Subcommittee: Jason McDermott, immediate past chair and current member of the FUELIowa Board of Directors, testified in front of the Iowa State Senate during the subcommittee hearing for Senate File 549.