WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today 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, expand year-round E15 sales, drive down gas prices, support our farmers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drive rural economic opportunity in Illinois and across the country.
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“Investing in clean energy has a positive ripple effect for our nation,” said Duckworth. “When we prioritize homegrown biofuels and year-round E15, 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 leaders today to discuss my commitment to clean energy initiatives, and I will continue to do everything I can to support our biofuel manufacturers across the state at the federal level.”
Duckworth met with a variety of renewable energy leaders today, including Illinois-based companies such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) of Chicago and John Deere of Moline.
In the Senate, Duckworth has been a leader in advancing biofuels. As a founding co-chair of the Senate Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Caucus, she has been a strong advocate for expansion of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by utilizing the domestic biofuels and agricultural sectors. To help increase the availability of E15 biofuels, Duckworth helped introduce the bipartisan Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act of 2025 and the bipartisan Next Generations Fuel Act to allow the year-round, nationwide sale of ethanol blends higher than 10 percent. Duckworth additionally helped introduce 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. Earlier this year she helped introduced the Farm to Fly Act to help accelerate the production and development of SAF.
While the Trump Administration continues to do everything in its power to decimate the international trade and domestic agricultural sector, Duckworth, as a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, remains an outspoken advocate for increased trade of Illinois pork, biofuels and agricultural goods across the globe and helped secure significant wins for Illinois and American agriculture. After Duckworth’s visit in 2023, Japan announced a regulatory change that will lead to an increase in imports from U.S. biofuel producers, supporting our farmers and growing Illinois’s economy, and following a prior trip to Taiwan in 2022, she helped secure a commitment from Taiwan to purchase an estimated $2.6 billion of our Illinois’s corn and soybeans.
