Ethanol plant owners, investors and workers generally make up the majority of the American Coalition for Ethanol members who attend the annual fly-in and visit lawmakers on Capitol Hill. But associate members, including financial and technical service providers, can provide their own unique perspectives on those visits.

Kim Herzog has worked for natural gas partner Encore Energy and been involved with ACE for over eight years, but this year’s ACE DC Fly-in was her first.

“We have a lot of ethanol customers and we appreciate the mission of the ethanol industry, supporting local rural communities, supporting the farmers,” said Herzog. “So I wanted to just add to what we’ve always done in the past and try out the DC fly-in, see what it was like, see if I could help in any way.”

She encourages everyone in the industry to take part in the fly-in. “Something that it’s taught me is like, don’t be afraid to come out here and actually get involved in it. It’s really easy to just read headlines and think that that’s just a world that you shouldn’t be involved in, but ACE makes it super approachable. I was nervous for sure at the beginning of all of this and just having it be my first time. And I think it’s good to have some of that nervous energy coming into it.”

Jackie Hayes has been active in the ethanol industry since 2017 and worked for the Renewable Fuels Association and the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville before starting at her position as business development director at Whitefox Technologies. She noted that while it’s always nice to meet with the lawmakers themselves on the hill, it’s very important to meet with the staffers as well.

“I don’t take for granted ever the opportunities to speak with congressional staffers,” said Hayes. “They’re a really critical piece of the value chain of policy. I mean, ultimately it’s staffers that wrote the initial draft of the renewable fuel standard, that delivered, the industry that we all serve today. It’s congressional staffers that, in many cases, really are the movers and shakers of DC.”

Listen to interviews with both Herzog and Hayes from last week’s ACE DC Fly-in:
Kim Herzog, Encore Energy (5:31)

Jackie Hayes, Whitefox Technologies (9:22)