2021 Iowa Legislative Session Begins

As 2021 Iowa Legislative Session, begins, see the statement below from FUELIowa President and CEO Ronald Langston:

After such an unprecedented year in our state’s history, we can finally mark the beginning of a new year - and with that, the 2021 Iowa State Legislative Session. State legislators have begun to once again focus on the legislative actions that will keep our economy moving forward and growing.

Last night, legislators along with Iowans across the state heard from Governor Kim Reynolds in her 2021 State of the State address as she laid out her vision and priorities for Iowa. FUELIowa wishes Governor Reynolds and all legislators well in their upcoming efforts.

The 2021 legislative session comes at a challenging time for Iowans. This session provides an opportunity for FUELIowa and our members to refocus on our priorities to ensure we can provide the highest quality fuels and service to Iowans in every corner of our state. As the activity at the Capitol gets underway this week, FUELIowa will be there every step of the way as the voice and advocate for Iowa's fuel industry which impacts every community in our state.

More than ever before, our economy requires key investments across our fuel distribution network. Our industry has been hard at work, providing innovation and higher blends of biofuels to meet Iowans’ needs, but we can’t accomplish our goal to move more biofuel across the state without needed infrastructure support. Today, many rural communities in Iowa don’t have the infrastructure required to sell higher blends of fuel such as E15 and B20. With the right support, we can address these issues with targeted infrastructure funding for our communities that need it the most so we can increase fuel options and grow our economy by utilizing more Iowa-produced biofuels.

Coming out of the pandemic, Iowa should also turn its attention to reforms that modernize a longtime Iowa law - Iowa’s bottle bill. While the debate about whether to increase, update or jettison this policy has gone on for some time, we believe common ground can be found to improve the bottle bill so that its original intention can be upheld with equitable treatment for all participants. Iowans want to “keep Iowa beautiful,” but they also expect laws to work as intended. For too long, outdated legislation has created an extra burden on the backs of grocery and convenience stores who don’t have the staff or the resources to adequately handle the bottles and cans. FUELIowa stands ready to come to the table with state leaders to help modernize the bottle bill to work more efficiently and effectively for the state economy.

We at FUELIowa look forward to a productive legislative session in 2021 and to working on behalf of our incredible membership that keeps our economy moving – which has never been more important than it is today.