Year-Round E15 Bill Still in Limbo


   Rural Council Races to Deliver Year-Round E15 Bill as Ethanol Sounds Alarm

   A congressional deadline for year-round E15 legislation passed without 
action, as biofuels industry leaders at the National Ethanol Conference urged 
lawmakers to quickly complete a bill.
Todd Neeley
DTN Environmental Editor

   ORLANDO, Fla. (DTN) -- A Feb. 25, 2026, deadline has come and gone for a 
special congressional committee to move new year-round E15 legislation to the 
floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, as biofuels industry officials at 
the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, Florida, stepped up pressure on 
lawmakers on Wednesday to get it done.

   The E15 Rural Energy Council made up of members of Congress began meeting 
earlier this month to come up with a legislative fix, and although the deadline 
has passed, an official with the American Petroleum Institute said the council 
is working.

   So far, little information has come out about the process.

   "I do expect we're going to see a product soon," said Will Hupman, vice 
president of downstream policy for the American Petroleum Institute.

   "I think we may see something as soon as this week, I know something's being 
drafted right now. The goalposts have moved on this a lot as they sort of talk 
with various stakeholders and they're trying to satisfy everyone."

   Considering the council is working toward a consensus to include petroleum 
interests and small-refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard, Hupman 
said the council made up of 20 members of Congress is faced with a difficult 
task.

   "And I think sort of the real question here, if you keep in mind that 
there's a one-vote margin in the House or two-vote margin in the House is, are 
we seeking something that has unanimous support or are we seeking something 
that has consensus support?" he said during a panel discussion.

   "I think that's an important distinction because I don't think unanimous 
support can't exist and will never exist."

   Geoff Cooper, CEO and president of the Renewable Fuels Association, said 
during a state of the industry speech the lack of year-round E15 is holding 
back both the biofuels and agriculture industries.

   Cooper called on members of Congress to act swiftly, stressing that 
year-round E15 would lower fuel costs, strengthen U.S. energy security and 
provide economic relief to farmers.

   He said a "small handful" of midsized refining companies are holding up 
progress on E15 and reform of the RFS's small-refinery exemption program and 
lawmakers are finding out "that there is simply no way to appease midsized 
refiners who continue to game the RFS system with SREs. Those refiners either 
want to maintain the status quo, or they want to blow up the RFS entirely -- 
neither of those options is acceptable to the majority of liquid fuel and 
agriculture stakeholders."

   The urgency to approve year-round E15 comes on the heels of a 2025 that saw 
U.S. ethanol producers manufacture a record 16.4 billion gallons of renewable 
fuel.

   In addition, domestic consumption reached 14.3 billion gallons -- the 
highest level in six years -- while exports surged to an all-time high of 2.2 
billion gallons, representing one out of every eight gallons produced, Cooper 
said.

   There has been some discussion in recent months that if Congress decides not 
to act on E15 legislation, more states will seek special Clean Air Act waivers 
to be allowed to sell E15 year-round in their states.

   So far Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and 
Wisconsin have received waivers, while Kansas may be next in line.

   On Tuesday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said if Congress does not pass E15 
legislation, she may take the same action.

   LEGISLATIVE HOPES

   Troy Bredenkamp, senior vice president of government and public affairs for 
the Renewable Fuels Association, said the hope of the industry is to see an E15 
bill attached to must-pass legislation, even after that approach failed in 
December 2024 when E15 was yanked out of an appropriations bill at the last 
minute.

   "I can tell you from our perspective, we do not want to see a floor vote," 
Bredenkamp said.

   "I mean, we all know E15 was never necessarily meant to be a standalone 
package. This was always meant to be a drop in onto a must-pass piece of 
legislation. We've never done a whip count on an entire U.S. House of 
Representatives. It's a very risky strategy, but if that's the road we have to 
go down, that's the road we will go down."

   Looking at the legislative calendar for the current session, Bredenkamp said 
the chances to attach E15 to another must-pass bill seem slim.

   "I don't see any new vehicles coming anytime soon," he said.

   VIABILITY OF SUMMER WAIVERS

   Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience 
Stores, said although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Trump 
administration is likely to continue to grant temporary waivers of summertime 
E15 bans, that isn't a long-term solution.

   "If we don't get legislation done, we're going to see some of the same exact 
dynamics as last year, right?" he said.

   "That begins to raise all of these problems where some of our folks may get 
fed up with certain things. We've been surviving on summertime E15 on emergency 
waivers for what, five years now? At some point, some EPA is going to say, 'how 
is it an emergency every single year?' I mean, look, we've written them letters 
every year and said, it's an emergency. You've got to waive it so we can keep 
selling it. Sometime that becomes untenable."

   RFS PROPOSAL TO OMB

   The ethanol industry received good news on Wednesday, as EPA Assistant 
Administrator for Air and Radiation Aaron Szabo announced during the conference 
that the final RFS volumes rule has been sent to the Office of Management and 
Budget for review.

   He said the agency expects the final rule to be released by the end of March.

   Cooper expressed optimism in his speech about the RFS volumes for 2026 and 
2027. The rule includes the highest-ever renewable volume targets and maintains 
the 15-billion-gallon conventional biofuel requirement. The industry continues 
to hold out hope the EPA will fully reallocate all biofuels gallons lost to 
small-refinery exemptions.

   Hupman said although the council's work on E15 continues to be "opaque," it 
is expected that a final bill could be like the "Nationwide Consumer and Fuel 
Retailer Choice Act" drafted by the ethanol industry.

   "In terms of the overall impact, again, without seeing it, this is some 
expectation, but my expectations are that the council is going to land in a 
pretty similar place to our original design," Hupman said.

   "Our sort of prognosis is that this council's gonna put together a product, 
it's gonna be legislation, they're gonna put it on the speaker's desk and say 
either all of us or most of us have signed off on this, but we don't yet know 
what happens."

   Read more on DTN:

   "E15 Push Hits Critical Stage," 
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/business-inputs/article/2026/02/06
/iowa-ethanol-leaders-keep-pressure

   Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com.

   Follow him on social platform X @DTNeeley

    




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