Colglazier on Fertilizer Price Investigation, E-15

June 26, 2026 – Nicholas Colglazier, executive director of the Colorado Corn Promotional Council said recent spikes in fertilizer costs are of great concern to producers, even though they have leveled slightly since the beginning of the war. He said this isn’t a new challenge for growers.

“It has been much longer than just the last few weeks that fertilizer prices have been relatively high,” he said. “If you go back into 2021, 2022 we saw a big spike in fertilizer prices and this is not the first time we’ve seen them go up. We’ve really been looking at where that conundrum starts.

He said he attended a meeting in Texas with other corn groups and groups representing other commodities like cotton and rice with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman Andrew Ferguson. It was at that meeting, he said, that Ferguson announced the FTC will be launching a formal investigation into the fertilizer companies.

“That’s a really positive step in the right direction especially when it comes to tackling an issue like fertilizer prices,” he said. 

He said the passage of the E15 bill out of the House of Representatives is also something celebrated among growers as it has been a long time coming. He said its passage through the House with 218 votes is a huge step but the challenge of the Senate and passage with a 60-vote threshold remains.

Colglazier said some of the intricacies within the bill may make passage challenging, but won’t slow the efforts of the industry. He said the bill is not a mandate, but simply gives consumers the option to utilize E15 year-round, which is 15% ethanol, less expensive, better for the environment, and better for vehicles.

Source: Western Ag Network