Ohio corn growers hope for year-round, nationwide sales of E15 fuel
In January, we told you Ohio Governor Mike DeWine asked the Environmental Protection Agency for a one-year delay to starting this.
The governor was more interested in a national approach to E15 sales and that is now under consideration in Washington.
E15 is sold in Ohio as Unleaded 88. It can cost less and is a cleaner-burning fuel.
The Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association says the state has seven ethanol plants that use 32% of Ohio's corn crop. It hopes Ohio's representatives and senators support the legislation.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
33 minutes ago
- Fast Company
EPA to rule on biofuel waivers, but big oil refiners may need to wait
President Donald Trump 's administration is expected to rule on a growing backlog of requests from small oil refiners seeking relief from U.S. biofuel laws as early as Friday, but will delay a decision on whether larger refiners must compensate by boosting their own biofuel blending, according to two sources familiar with the planning. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday will announce decisions on some of the 195 pending small refinery exemption requests that date back as far as 2016, the sources said. The rulings will not be a sweeping win for small refiners, and will include some partial denials of waivers, according to one of the sources briefed on the decisions. The administration is also expected to issue a supplemental rule as early as next week to seek public comment on whether larger refiners should make up for the exempted gallons in a process known as reallocation, the source said. How the administration deals with exemption requests and the reallocation issues will have consequences for the oil and agricultural industries, and impact the price of commodities from gasoline and renewable diesel to soybeans and corn, along with the companies that produce them. In the past, widespread exemptions without reallocation have sent renewable blending credit prices lower, denting prices for corn-based ethanol and soybean-based biofuel. The EPA and White House did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard requires refiners to blend biofuels like ethanol into the fuel pool or by the tradable credits, known as RINs, from refiners who do. Small refiners can petition the EPA to receive an exemption if they can show financial hardship. The EPA has a mounting backlog of such requests going back years – the result of political indecision and legal wrangling across multiple administrations. Both the agriculture and the oil industries are keen for resolution. Granting exemptions without forcing other refiners to make up the difference increases the supply of credits and puts downward pressure on their prices. Farm and biofuel groups have lobbied the EPA to limit the number of exemptions and to force other refiners to make up for exempted gallons. The oil industry is strongly opposed to reallocation, arguing it creates an uneven playing field and imposes burdensome regulatory costs. The EPA said earlier this year that it would force larger refiners to make up for future exempted gallons, but was silent on how it would treat exempt gallons from the dozens of backlogged requests. The supplemental rule will include various options in a bid to test how the market may respond, the sources said. —Jarrett Renshaw, Reuters
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The GOP's big problem in selling the ‘big, beautiful bill'
Republicans are facing a major obstacle as they try to tout the potential benefits of President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill': They need voters to take their word on it for now. GOP lawmakers and top administration officials are using August to make a country-wide sales pitch for their crowning legislative achievement — a massive tax, spending and domestic policy package. The party sees this month as crucial for gaining ground in the messaging war with Democrats over the new law, which pairs an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts with some of his campaign promises like 'no tax on tips,' plus more funding for immigration enforcement and the military. The White House is dispatching Vice President JD Vance to Georgia on Thursday, where he'll talk about the megabill's 'working family tax cuts,' according to his spokesperson. Republicans want to be the ones to define their megabill with voters ahead of next year's midterms, where the GOP's unified control of Congress is at stake. They saw Democrats try to shop their signature climate law in 2022 — only for most Americans to say they either never heard of it, or were swayed by Republicans' counterargument it was a 'green new scam.' But the GOP megabill is less than two months old, and many of its purported boons — like new and expanded tax cuts and savings accounts for children under 18 — won't be fully felt by voters until 2026, making it harder for Republicans to reinforce what they see as the law's advantages. At the same time, Republicans are going up against Democrats embarking on their own nationwide tour to denigrate what they call the 'big, ugly bill" and its dire shortcomings. 'It's hard for people to realize anything that they haven't seen yet — all they are doing is hearing it. And we all want to go out … and say, 'This is the positive from this, this is what's happened,'' Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said this week. 'There's going to be a lot of substance to this, it just all has to go into effect.' At the same time, Tuberville acknowledged that his own state would 'pay a little bit of a price' because of changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which will force the state to cover more of the program's cost. Asked if he was worried selling the bill would be harder than expected, Tuberville hedged. 'No — well again, you don't know until the end of the day, how this bill is going to be reacted to.' He predicted the next six months would determine the law's reception. Yet the GOP's efforts to preview the megabill's forthcoming perks come as Democrats are also using August to flood the zone — including visiting red states and typically safe GOP districts — to warn about the law's impending cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. 'House Republicans have betrayed their constituents in passing the Big, Ugly Law which benefits the wealthiest few and leaves everyday families behind,' Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene (Wash.) said in a statement Wednesday. Republicans are well aware that they are facing a tidal wave of Democratic criticism heading into a midterm election cycle, when the party in power typically loses seats. While Republicans still have an edge in the Senate map, Democrats have managed to score major recruiting wins in key races and are cautiously optimistic about their chances of flipping the House in 2026. One House Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said in a recent interview that the party has a good case to make on the GOP megabill but they need to hammer it harder. 'We have to do better,' the Republican said. 'We have to pound that over and over again: Constituents are going to feel it.' The House GOP's campaign arm circulated a memo late last month with guidance for how to message about the law, calling the congressional August recess a 'critical opportunity to continue to define how this legislation will help every voter and push back on Democrat fearmongering.' Since then, House and Senate Republicans have, indeed, fanned out across the country to tout state-specific benefits from their megabill they pledge will come soon. Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, for instance, visited three Iowa manufacturers as part of a tour to highlight funding for workforce and trade school training. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has blanketed his home state of South Dakota to talk up the legislation — where he also promised, in a local TV interview this week, that its impact 'will be more fully, you know, realized over time.' The most 'immediate' win for voters, Thune said, is that the megabill will prevent a tax hike come 2026 since it extended dozens of soon-to-expire tax cuts the party enacted in 2017. In the meantime, Republicans are still fine tuning their messaging. At an industrial refrigeration manufacturing facility in Georgia on Thursday, Vance is expected to pitch the tax breaks in the megabill as a gift to working families. And a senior White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, said part of the party's broader megabill rebrand will focus on reminding voters of the specific policy promises on which Trump campaigned and then followed through. 'Step one is, you make them trust you and the way you make them trust you is by doing what you campaigned on,' said the official. 'With the big, beautiful bill having passed, we fulfilled most of our signature promises from the campaign that people elected us for: no tax on tips, no tax on overtime pay, no tax on Social Security.' Vance will also use the Georgia trip to hammer Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, with Republicans viewing the incumbent's seat as a top pick-up opportunity next year. William Martin, Vance's communications director, called it an 'absolute disgrace' that Ossoff voted against the bill and 'that's something Vice President Vance will be sure to emphasize during his visit to Peachtree City.' Ossoff is already offering a pre-buttal of his own: 'JD promised the new GOP would fight for working families,' he said in a statement. 'Instead he's defunding hospitals, nursing homes, and Medicaid to cut taxes for the wealthy.' While CBO found that middle-income households will see their resources grow as a result of the megabill, it's the wealthiest 10 percent that will get the biggest bump. Another hurdle for Republicans? They are trying to get voters to focus on the yet-to-be-fully-seen wins of the megabill while voters are distracted by other, more tangible issues: the fight over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, recent developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and a move by at least two states to redraw their congressional maps mid-decade. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, one of the few Republicans from a district won by former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, said he's also getting an earful about efforts by the Office of Management and Budget to freeze federal funding for widely-used government programs. Bacon suggested Trump's new domestic policy law is taking a backseat at home these days: 'I hear more about all the grant money that is frozen by OMB,' he said. Mia McCarthy and Jake Traylor contributed to this report.
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Fox News
Meta AI docs exposed, allowing chatbots to flirt with kids
Tech bro Mark Zuckerberg's company has been caught in one of the most disturbing scandals yet. Reuters uncovered an internal Meta document that allowed its AI chatbots to flirt with children and engage in sensual conversations. The revelation sparked outrage, and Meta only reversed course after getting caught. Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my According to internal "GenAI: Content Risk Standards," Meta's legal, policy, and engineering teams signed off on chatbot rules that made it acceptable for bots to describe a child as "a youthful form of art" or engage in romantic roleplay with minors. Even worse, the guidelines gave room for chatbots to demean people by race and spread false medical claims. This was not a bug. These were approved rules until Meta faced questions. Once Reuters started asking, the company quickly scrubbed the offensive sections and claimed it had been a mistake. We reached out to Meta, and a spokesperson provided this statement to CyberGuy: "We have clear policies on what kind of responses AI characters can offer, and those policies prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors. Separate from the policies, there are hundreds of examples, notes, and annotations that reflect teams grappling with different hypothetical scenarios. The examples and notes in question were and are erroneous and inconsistent with our policies, and have been removed." Let's call this what it is. Meta didn't stop this on its own. It only acted when exposed. That shows Big Tech's priorities: money, engagement, and keeping kids glued to screens. Safety? Not even on the radar until someone blows the whistle. Meta has repeatedly shown it couldn't care less about your children's well-being. It's about maximizing time online, pulling in younger users, and monetizing every click. This latest scandal proves once again that parents cannot rely on tech companies to protect kids. Senator Josh Hawley and a bipartisan group in Congress are demanding that Meta come clean. Lawmakers want to know how and why these policies ever got approval. Hawley called on Meta to release all internal documents and explain why chatbots were allowed to simulate flirting with children. Meta insists it has "fixed" the problem, but critics argue these corrections only came after they were exposed. Until real regulations arrive, parents are on their own. While Congress investigates, families need to take immediate steps to protect their children from the dangers exposed in Meta's AI scandal. Children should never have free access to AI chatbots, including Meta AI. The internal documents show these systems can cross boundaries that no parent would approve of. Supervision is the first line of defense. Enable parental controls on phones, tablets, and computers. These tools give you more visibility and limit access to risky apps where inappropriate chatbot conversations could happen. The Meta revelations prove AI can go places parents would never expect. Ongoing conversations with your children about what is safe and what is not online are essential for their protection. Apps like Bark allow parents to block or filter certain programs where AI interactions may slip through. With tech companies failing to self-police, filtering tools give parents more control. Read more here: Is your child's data up for grabs? The hidden dangers of school tech While antivirus software won't stop AI flirting, it adds a much-needed layer of security. Hackers and bad actors often target kids through the same devices where chatbots live, so whole-family protection matters. The best way to safeguard from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing you and your family's private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at These steps won't solve the problem entirely, but they give parents more power at a time when Big Tech seems unwilling to put children's safety first. If you thought chatbots were harmless fun, think again. Meta's own documents prove its AI bots were allowed to cross dangerous lines with children. Parents must now take a proactive role in monitoring tech, because Big Tech will not protect your kids until forced. Meta's scandal shows once again why blind trust in Silicon Valley is dangerous. AI can be powerful, but without accountability, it becomes a threat. Congress may push for answers, but parents must stay one step ahead to safeguard their children. Do you think Big Tech companies like Meta should ever be trusted to police themselves when kids' safety is on the line? Let us know by writing to us at Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
