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Following a string of false starts, the moment of truth is here for ethanol.
After two decades of fighting for a bigger share of the American gas tank, the House is set to vote on a bill Wednesday that would allow year-round, voluntary sales of higher ethanol fuel blends, known as E15.
The path to this point has been fraught with vicious lobbying battles, newfound factions, fractured alliances and a whole lot of political wrangling.
“It feels like every other year we get right up to the goal line, and every year politics, delays or dysfunction get in the way,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., said at a news briefing Tuesday alongside a bipartisan group of fellow lawmakers and E15 backers from around the country. “We’re here to say enough.”
Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw said farm and biofuel representatives are busy “working the halls” of Congress and getting close to securing enough support for the legislation. Overhanging the vote is concern about soaring fuel prices due to war in the Middle East, an economic dilemma now entangled in high-stakes congressional elections later this year.
Monte Shaw (IRFA photo)“This vote is going to be the gas price vote of 2026. Prices are over $4 a gallon in Iowa, we’re freaking out,” Shaw told Agri-Pulse. “Everybody that votes for this bill can go back to their constituents and say 'I voted to provide you a lower cost at the pump.'"
In Iowa, the top U.S. producer of ethanol and the corn used to make it, the average price of a regular gallon of gasoline stood at $4.19 on Tuesday, according to AAA. The average price a year ago was $2.88 a gallon.
Opposition replay
The pro-ethanol rally on Capitol Hill followed legislative stumbles as recently as three months ago, when infighting within the fossil fuel industry killed a deal aimed at moving an E15 measure through Congress. President Donald Trump, who campaigned to deliver year-round E15, has called on congressional leaders to pass a bill that works for farmers, biofuel producers and large and small refiners.
Nebraska Republican Rep. Adrian Smith, sponsor of the legislation, said more than 96% of the domestic fuel supply chain either backs the bill or is neutral.
Still, memories are fresh of independent refiners balking at an ultimately doomed E15 bill back in January, with concern raised by senior lawmakers including Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., a proponent of ethanol.
A lot of that same opposition is in play going into today's vote.
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“This legislation is not a compromise,” the Fueling America Jobs Coalition, which represents independent refiners, said in a statement Tuesday. “This move contradicts the president’s commitment that any E15 agreement would protect small and mid-sized refiners. This legislation is a cost shift that will be paid by America’s independent refiners and millions of American consumers who depend on affordable, reliable gasoline.”
At issue is a provision in the E15 measure that would overhaul the process for small and mid-size oil refiners to request exemptions from federal biofuel-blending requirements. Infighting between large and small oil companies over the provision derailed an E15 congressional deal in January.
The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil and gas lobby representing large, multi-national fuel makers, backs the proposal to shrink the number of refineries eligible for exemption, arguing that the current process is opaque and injects volatility into the market.
“The legislation’s reasonable reforms to the small refinery exemption (SRE) process will help restore transparency and predictability for all parties subject to the Renewable Fuel Standard,” API and other groups wrote to members of Congress on Monday.
Small refiners accuse API of wanting to consolidate the industry by driving them out of business due to hefty regulatory expenses.
“As RFS compliance costs rise and flexibility disappears, independent and small refiners will face greater financial pressure in shakier economic times, increasing the risk of additional refinery closures and tighter fuel supplies,” the coalition said while urging lawmakers to vote against the E15 bill, H.R. 1346.
The energy trade group also said Congress shouldn’t advance “unbalanced legislation that risks raising gas prices and weakening America’s energy security in the long term.” Some critics also argue that the exemption provision would put both strong oil industry jobs and the refineries themselves at risk.
For some key Democrats, there's also longtime concern over ethanol’s environmental impacts.
SRE process made simpler, Smith says
Smith said the idea that year-round E15 would drive refiners out of business isn’t true and “many of the refiners making these claims went years without even applying” for an exemption. The SRE process has become “vulnerable to political manipulation” and the E15 bill would provide a “fairer” system that would automatically grant exemptions to eligible firms.
Geoff Cooper (RFA photo)Biofuel enthusiasts contend that year-round E15 would create new demand for American corn, lower fuel costs, boost rural economies and strengthen national energy security. The Renewable Fuels Association, a leading ethanol trade group, has previously pointed to a University of California study showing that E15 significantly lowers emissions versus regular gasoline.
RFA CEO Geoff Cooper rejects the idea that higher ethanol blends raise fuel costs. “When you pull into any retail gas station offering E15 today, your own eyes will see that the fuel is the lowest-cost option available,” Cooper said in an online post this month. “E15 typically sells for 15-40 cents per gallon less than standard E10 gasoline.”
National Corn Growers Association President Jed Bower told Agri-Pulse the biggest challenge ahead of the vote is getting the word out. “So many members still don’t understand the importance of E15.”
If the bill passes the House, it then moves to the Senate for consideration.
A year-round E15 measure came close to being included in a stop-gap spending bill in December 2024, but was removed at the last minute. The ethanol industry blamed opposition from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the electric car entrepreneur and billionaire who had a prominent role in Trump's transition team at the time.
The bill was “killed with a tweet,” said Ohio Democratic Rep. Shontel Brown, vice ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee. While the latest bill “may not be exactly what we would have done on our own, it’s still progress.”
However, the push for E15 also faces fierce opposition from oil-state lawmakers including Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas and Scott Perry, R-Pa.“Republicans must decide: government-mandated fuel for the ethanol lobby, or fuel freedom for Americans?” the lawmakers wrote last week in an op-ed for The Hill.
They argue that without changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard, the law behind yearly biofuel-blending rules, an E15 expansion "entrenches a hidden gas tax, drives up food and fuel prices, slashes vehicle efficiency, threatens refining jobs, and undermines American energy dominance. Republicans who champion free markets and affordable energy must oppose it.”Along with longtime debate over ethanol's impact on gasoline prices, another major point of contention is the issue of greenhouse gases.
Roy and Perry said full life-cycle emissions analysis “shows corn ethanol often matches or exceeds gasoline’s carbon footprint.”Ethanol groups reject such findings.
On the other side, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is urging lawmakers to get E15 over the finish line.
“It solves a couple of important problems, one of which is demand for corn in this country at a time when we're losing some of our export markets,” Thune said in an unrelated Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Tuesday. “And secondly, increasing the supply of fuel in this country at a time when gas prices are going up. So as an economic matter, it makes all the sense in the world.”
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