An historic alignment of agreement between the oil and ethanol industries is being held hostage by a small number of refiners, threatening the future of nationwide, year-round E15 (15% ethanol fuel).

Nebraska Ethanol Board chairman Jan tenBensel shared a graphic on social media last week calling out six refining companies by name with a combined revenue of nearly $172 billion. “The handful of refining companies trying to kill the year-round E15 bill make more money than all of our nation’s farmers and ranchers combined! Yet, they say they need RFS “hardship exemptions” to avoid blending ethanol and biodiesel? Give me a break!,” tenBensel said on X.

The companies named are Tennessee-based Delek US, HF Sinclair, Canadian companies Cenovus Energy and Suncor Energy, CVR Energy in Texas, and Houston-based Par Pacific.

The impact the refinery hold-outs could have on the push to get E15 legislation completed this month in Congress was discussed at last week’s Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit.

“I think this is a story of more than 95% of the liquid fuel supply chain on one side and six billion dollar companies masquerading as small refiners on the other side. And I think that retailers are firmly on the right side of that,” said Matt Durand, Deputy Legal Counsel, National Association of Convenience Stores.

Troy Bredenkamp, Senior Vice President of Government & Public Affairs for the Renewable Fuels Association, said the support for E15 is significant, but the retailers who are opposed are powerful. “We have probably 100% of the ag community in support or neutral. We have 100% of the retail segment in support or neutral, certainly the biofuel segment in support,” he said. “So you really have these outlying midstream refineries, publicly traded mostly, some of them are foreign-owned, that are the losers in the new deal. When you’re talking about shrinking the size of the small refining sector from 37 facilities down to 17, there’s losers in that group.”

Bredenkamp says there are about 20 refineries in total, with the six named mid-size refineries owning multiple facilities. “So there’s a windfall that they’re going to be out of if they don’t continue to get small refinery exemptions. The 5 or 6 in that category have friends in high places. And so those are the ones that we’re up against.”

Listen to comments from Bredenkamp, Durand, and Iowa RFA Executive Director Monte Shaw during a panel discussion at the summit.
Iowa RFA E15 (7:24)