Bob Beutke admits to being biased.

As a farmer who grows a lot of corn, Beutke, of Grand Ridge, thinks the country should use more ethanol to power vehicles.

As he sees it, more ethanol means more jobs, improved national security and, of course, more money flowing back to rural America and U.S farmers.

And so, Beutke, like many other farmers and others associated with agriculture in La Salle County and elsewhere, has lined up solidly behind a proposal intended to help an already-troubled domestic ethanol industry avoid running into a wall.

In March, a group of more than 50 ethanol producers, represented by industry lobby group Growth Energy, submitted a request to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a waiver that would allow the industry to increase the amount of ethanol that can be blended into gasoline sold in the U.S.

Under the law, federal regulators must rule on the request within 270 days — or, in this case, by Tuesday, Dec. 1.

However, before making a ruling, the EPA must allow the public to comment on the waiver request. That public comment period had been scheduled to end May 21. But at the request of farm groups and others, the EPA has agreed to extend the time during which the public can comment on the request until Monday, July 20.

For decades, much of the fuel sold in the U.S. has been blended with 10 percent ethanol. However, in recent years, the amount of ethanol produced in the U.S. has been on the rise. In 2008, the ethanol industry produced 9 billion gallons of the alternative fuel. And this year, ethanol production is expected to rise yet again, to more than 12 billion gallons.

But for the ethanol industry, the steadily rising production portends trouble. Should the federal government continue to limit the blend of ethanol in regular unleaded gasoline to 10 percent — a blend known as E10 — the ethanol industry will run into what is known in the industry as the "blend wall," or the maximum amount of ethanol that can be reliably absorbed by U.S. gasoline production.

According to the federal Energy Information Administration, Americans used about 137 billion gallons of gasoline in 2008. So, if ethanol is blended at a rate of 10 percent into 90 percent of gasoline produced in the U.S., the blend wall would stand at about 12.5 billion gallons — a production figure the ethanol industry likely will meet or exceed this year.

With this in mind, the ethanol industry has asked federal regulators to allow producers to blend gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, a fuel known as E15.

The request, however, has created yet another showdown in Washington over ethanol.

For farmers like Beutke and Ken Beck, of Mendota, the issue is essential to the future of U.S. ethanol production.

Beck, who represents La Salle and Livingston counties on the board of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, notes the ethanol industry has been hammered in recent months by a combination of relatively low oil prices, high grain prices and what he calls a public relations campaign that has fueled a notion that corn-based ethanol production increases food prices while hurting the environment.

He said the E15 waiver would help the industry greatly, and, thus, help farmers and others in agriculture in La Salle County and other parts of the country in which agriculture reigns as a major industry.

However, the waiver has encountered opposition from a coalition of business organizations and environmental activist groups.

The National Association of Convenience Stores, which represents service stations across the country, intends to oppose the waiver request primarily because it does not believe the gasoline pumps and other industry infrastructure now in place is ready to handle E15.

They also share the concerns of some engine manufacturers that the higher ethanol blends may serve to void warranties on automobiles, boats and other engines powered by gasoline.

"I want to stress we are not anti-ethanol," said John Eichberger, vice president for government relations of the NACS. "We believe that mid-level ethanols may have their place in the market once the infrastructure is legally permitted to accommodate them and once consumers operate vehicles and equipment that is safe and certified for their use."

Other groups, like the Environmental Working Group, an environmentalist lobby group, believe E15 would damage engines and shorten the useful lifespan of automobiles, thus increasing emissions and harming the environment.

Other environmental groups have argued ethanol production in general is damaging to the environment, since it may lead farmers in other parts of the world to claim more land, such as forested land, for farms to grow more crops to replace the food production environmentalists claim is erased when crops like corn are used for ethanol.

Supporters of ethanol, however, argue such standards are unfair.

Beck, for instance, thinks ethanol producers are not being treated fairly by many in Washington who do not fully understand the issue.

"People just don"t know where their food comes from," Beck said. "So it"s our duty to explain ourselves better and to inform the public what"s at stake here."

So far, Beck has been pleased by a strong response from farmers in La Salle County, as many, like Beutke, have taken the time to call or write the EPA and Congress on the issue.

But Beutke worries many farmers, like him, may be too busy trying to tend to their crops to generate a larger rally.

"Corn and ag is just huge around here," Beutke said. "It"s probably the biggest industry in this county.

"So you can"t say something like this (E15) is not important to us."