800 326 9054Ethanol industry backers expressed anger and frustration Thursday after House leadership decided to create a study council for biofuel issues rather than including a year-round E15 provision in a fiscal 2026 spending package.
“How sad is this. It truly seems like a cowardly attempt not to get something productively done for rural America,” National Corn Growers Association President Jed Bower told Agri-Pulse.
”As we look at this, and we look at the foreclosures and the bankruptcies rising in rural America … what does Congress think they’re doing here? I don’t get it.”
NCGA and ethanol groups mounted a last-ditch lobbying effort this week to get the E15 provision included in the spending package, but lawmakers said they ran into opposition from the Senate.
As a compromise, House GOP leaders added an amendment to the rule for the funding package to establish “the E-15 Rural Domestic Energy Council, appointed by the Speaker of the House, to develop legislative solutions to address the crisis facing our nation’s farmers and refiners.”
Under the rule, which the House narrowly adopted, 214-213, Thursday morning, the council would have until Feb. 15 to submit a legislative proposal, with the goal of considering the bill by Feb. 25.
The council would be required “to investigate topics including, but not limited to, the sale of Ethanol-15, U.S. refinery capacity, the Renewable Fuel Standard Program, Renewable Identification Numbers, access to markets, and federal regulations that hinder American energy dominance.”
New draft E15 language that emerged from a recent deal between farm groups and the American Petroleum Institute would significantly reduce the number of refiners eligible for small refinery exemptions form the Renewable Fuel Standard, as well as streamline the process by automatically granting partial waivers, removing an administrative and political burden from the EPA and White House.
But there was still a perception among independent merchant refineries that the biofuel-blending rules benefit big, integrated oil companies at the expense of smaller ones, a source from the refinery industry told Agri-Pulse on the condition of anonymity.
The fragile E15 deal, which appears to have completely fallen apart at this point, fed into the concern among smaller refiners that there isn’t a level playing field with their larger rivals, the source said.
Representatives from API and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers didn’t immediately respond to Agri-Pulse’s requests for comment.
Still, some Midwest Republicans expressed optimism about the outcome in the House.
Iowa GOP Rep. Zach Nunn, who led the push for the E15 provision, told reporters that the measure’s backers have a “firm commitment from the speaker” to work with the Trump administration “to be able to make sure that this is a priority to be able to get done in February.”
“We’ve been working for three years on the farm bill to make this happen, and it’s something that has to pass before March 1, when both growers, blenders and the American public need have an answer on this,” said Nunn.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., called the study council “a huge step forward.”
“We’re going to have the House on record that E15 needs to be done by Feb. 25. This is as clear a pathway forward as we have ever had. And this is great news for American energy dominance and for American farmers,” Johnson told Agri-Pulse.
Other lawmakers expressed frustration at GOP leadership and the lack of a legislative outcome.
“It’s frustrating that we’ve hit an impasse,” Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said during a Rules Committee hearing on Thursday.
“They could have easily put this into an appropriations package and they just abdicated their responsibility,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., told Agri-Pulse. “Now we’re back to having to have these conversations. Is it a standalone bill? What does it look like in February?”
She accused her Midwestern Republican colleagues of caving too soon in their acceptance of a new task force.
“We’ve actually already reached a compromise on all this – all of the language. It just needed to be put into the appropriations bill,” she said.
Trump administration officials in recent weeks have expressed support for the effort. During a webinar on Tuesday, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden reiterated Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins’ support for the measure and urged Congress to act.
Smith told reporters after the hearing that he hopes that President Trump can help break the impasse before the end of February.
“I think there’s developing arguments in favor of getting this done, and hopefully the president will help us out,” he said.
Ethanol advocates point to six straight years of government waivers allowing year-round E15 sales, overriding summertime restrictions based on pollution concerns that biofuel groups say are out of date.
“We are very disappointed that Congress has again failed to adopt a simple technical fix that would have made lower-cost, American-made E15 available to consumers nationwide all year long,” Renewable Fuels Association President Geoff Cooper said, adding that a compromise deal had been broadly backed by farmers, ethanol makers, large oil refiners and several small ones.
“Lawmakers let it slip away,” Cooper said.
“Congress picked foreign refiners over American farmers and drivers today. What a travesty,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “E15 delivers cost savings for consumers and generates long-term demand for American agriculture. These have been the facts during the 12-year-long debate over the simple act of allowing consumers the choice to buy a better value fuel year-round. Failure to act will now lead to farmers missing out on a critical market during the worst farm crisis in 40 years.”
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters he’s not sure if an E15 measure might be included in legislation being considered to provide a second round of economic relief to farmers.
The House Agriculture Committee’s Democratic staff posted on social media a statement that said, “Farmers don’t need us to ‘study’ E15. They need domestic markets after being crushed by Trump’s tariffs.”
The X post was accompanied by a cartoon of Lucy pulling the football, labeled E15, away from Charlie Brown just as he is about to kick it.
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*Sourced from Agri-Pulse.