800 326 9054Lawmakers worked late into the evening Tuesday in a bid to find a way for long sought-after ethanol legislation to be added to a fiscal 2026 funding package that needs to pass Congress by Jan. 30.
The scramble follows the omission of language to allow year-round, nationwide sales of higher ethanol blends, known as E15, from a suite of spending bills released on Tuesday by U.S. House members, just days after ag and biofuel groups reached a fresh agreement with the American Petroleum Institute on a way forward with the proposed biofuel measure.
Republican Rep. Zach Nunn of Iowa, an Ag Committee member, told Agri-Pulse the gains corn farmers would see from potentially bigger ethanol sales, along with lower fuel costs for consumers, are crucial for President Donald Trump’s “message of making things more affordable for Americans.”
The House is trying to wrap up remaining funding measures this week so senators can finish up the work next week when they return from a week-long recess. Without passage of 2026 funding legislation, whether long term or short, the country will enter another partial shutdown after a record-long six-week funding lapse late last year. Ag groups on Tuesday said they were surprised on Tuesday when E15 was left out of the latest fiscal 2026 appropriations package.
“Corn farmers were really disappointed that this year-round E15 bill that has such widespread support wasn’t included in the package moving through the House right now,” Lesly McNitt, vice president of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association, told Agri-Pulse. “We’ve lost our patience with this process.”
After years of trying to expand nationwide availability of E15, which refers to blends of 15% ethanol with gasoline, up from the standard 10%, the stars recently looked to be aligning in Congress.
A 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, who had a prominent role in President Donald Trump’s transition team at the time.
Ahead of Tuesday evening’s meeting on the issue, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Agri-Pulse, “You’d think President Trump would support it. It’s not that hard of a thing. It would have been in already. But Elon took it out, pretty much. I mean, we catered to him, we shouldn’t have.”
After much buzz in recent years over the growing alliance between agriculture and Big Oil, which typically had been in fierce lobbying battles over biofuel regulations, new factions are forming within the biofuel world as rules and proposed regulations dealing with foreign feedstocks, blending mandate exemptions and tax credit values divided the industry.
The threat electric transportation represents to liquid fuel makers has led to a newfound alliance between agriculture and oil groups like API in recent years.
“Year-round E15 has the support of lawmakers, consumers, retailers, biofuel producers, and particularly farmers,” Emily Skor, CEO of ethanol lobbying group Growth Energy, said on Monday before the House spending package was released. It “supports American farm families who are currently staring down significant economic challenges.”
Full-year sales of the fuel have already taken effect for multiple years due to government waivers and an order by Trump during his first term. That decree was overturned by the courts, putting the ball squarely in the court of Congress. While oil refiners have long fought against ethanol mandates and higher blends, the powerful American Petroleum Institute recently got back on board with key E15 legislation after pulling support late last year as part of a broader protest against what it viewed as a raft of pro-biofuel policies from Washington that put refiners at a disadvantage.
Ethanol backers also say previous concerns that summertime E15 sales pose a pollution risk are long outdated thanks to technological advancements.
“E15 doesn’t create smog in the heat anymore,” said Wisconsin Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a member of the Ag Committee. “And if that’s the purpose of banning it during summer months, if that purpose no longer exists, then just change it to get up to speed. I mean, it’s a no brainer.”
Meanwhile, some refiners remain fiercely opposed to giving ethanol a chance to expand further.
A draft revision of legislation from Republican Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska has been circulating on Capitol Hill since late last week following an agreement between API and biofuel and ag groups. The proposal would revamp the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules around granting biofuel-blending exemptions to certain small refineries that claim economic hardship. The changes would create a more difficult hurdle for refiners to clear to qualify for exemptions, prompting pushback by some oil executives.
It’s not clear if House members will seek to add E15 language to the spending package as an amendment or if the Senate might include it when they return to Washington next week.
If spending legislation passes without the ethanol provision, the road to passage gets harder as a stand-alone bill faces obstacles, including getting it through the Senate Environment Committee. Higher ethanol blends are opposed both by some refiners and continue to be rejected by some environmentalists who argue the corn-based fuel’s production process is problematic and adds to climate harming emissions.
More than a third of America’s annual corn crop is used to make ethanol.
McNitt said she’s hopeful lawmakers will fight to get E15 passed before Jan. 31.
“When it comes to House and Senate leadership. I’ve seen them pull rabbits out of their hats many times before,” she said. “If the will is there to get it done they will find a way.”
*Sourced from Agri-Pulse.