ZimmComm Recognized for Ethanol Reporting

Cindy Zimmerman

ACE’s Katie Muckenhirn (R) presents award to Cindy Zimmerman

ZimmComm was honored to receive the media award from the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) last week at The ACE conference for our “decades of dedicated reporting on the people, policies, and progress shaping the U.S. ethanol industry.”

This means a lot to us because the ethanol industry was instrumental in our company’s success and we have been able to cover the most consequential two decades in the history of the fuel since the signing of the Renewable Fuel Standard in 2005. The first photo album in our Flickr collection is the 2005 Indy 500 where it was announced they would begin using a 10% ethanol blend the following year.

We have had the privilege of being able to cover 27 ACE events since 2008, both their annual meetings and DC Fly-ins, and the pleasure of interviewing and getting to know so many of their members. After over 20 years of traveling to cover various industry events, Chuck and I are retiring from business travel at the end of 2025 and while we will not miss the airports we will miss the friends we have met on the way.

Thanks to our ACE friends for this special honor, especially Katie Muckinhern, Brian Jennings and Ron Lamberty.

2025 ACE Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, ZimmComm

Fluid Quip Technologies Celebrates CVEC Installation

Cindy Zimmerman

As the American Coalition for Ethanol annual conference (The ACE) kicked off last week in Sioux Falls, Fluid Quip Technologies (FQT) announced the successful installation and startup of its DCO Technology™ system at Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. (CVEC) in Benson, Minnesota.

“We’re happy to announce that after two months into full scale running, they’re averaging over 35% uplift on their corn oil, which is huge,” said FQT Vice President Michael Franko during an interview at The ACE Conference. “And what really excites us about this installation and all of our DCO technologies is they do a mechanical washing of the stillage and clarify thin stillage so you can run your evaps more efficiently. So there’s energy savings opportunities all at the same time while you’re getting oil.”

FQT is a leader in advanced processing and separation solutions for the biofuels industry with its DCO Technology™ for boosting corn oil recovery without the need for recurring expensive chemistry. Leveraging multi-stage stillage washing and thin stillage clarification, the system increases oil yield by optimizing oil separation at multiple points throughout production including recovering oil from backset streams. Designed as a bolt-on to existing facilities, the technology integrates seamlessly with current oil recovery equipment to deliver rapid returns and lasting value.

Franko was on a panel at the conference focused on plant-level innovations that boost operational efficiency and enhance oil recovery – “Advancing Energy Efficiency and Oil Recovery: New Strategies, New Gains” – moderated by Jamey Cline, Christianson PLLP, and joined by Chris Gerken, ICM, Inc., Principal Scientist.

Listen to that panel here:
2025 ACE - Energy Efficiency and Oil Recovery panel (45:58)

Listen to an interview with Franko here:
2025 ACE - Michael Franko, FQT (3:39)

2025 ACE Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Oil, technology

Rick Schwark Honored With Merle Anderson Award

Cindy Zimmerman

L-R: ACE president Dave Sovereign, Merle Anderson Award winner Rick Schwark; ACE CEO Brian Jennings

The American Coalition for Ethanol presented its most prestigious award this year to Rick Schwark of Absolute Energy in St. Ansgar, Iowa.

Schwark stepped down as CEO of Absolute Energy in 2024 but remains as Chairman Board of Directors and continues to serve on the Board of Directors for not only ACE, but also the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, Iowa RFA, and U.S. Grains and Bioproducts Council.

Schwark has also been a strong proponent of aromatics cancer research being done at Hormel Institute. “Ethanol, along with its you know great fuel attributes, is non-carcinogenic and cancer is a big thing and a lot of people like people’s lives and if your family’s been affected by it you know what I’m talking about and you know the emissions reduction from and the tailpipe cleanup created by ethanol has significant carcinogenic benefits and that research that the Hormel Institute, along with the University of Minnesota, University of Illinois-Chicago, and others is proving that data out,” said Schwark.

2025 ACE - Merle Anderson Award (8:39)
2025 ACE - interview with Rick Schwark, Absolute Energy (4:13)

L-R: John Christianson (2024); Ron Alverson (2023); Rick Schwark (2025); Bob Scott (2020); Scott Parsley (2007)

The Merle Anderson Award is named after the first president and founder of ACE and is presented annually to recognize an individual who has made distinguished and significant contributions to the advancement of the U.S. ethanol industry. This year, ACE was fortunate enough to have four former Merle Anderson Award winners attend the conference.

All five gathered to pose for a photo: John Christianson, managing partner of Christianson & Associates, PLLP (2024); Ron Alverson, South Dakota farmer and carbon “guru” who helped found Dakota Ethanol (2023); Rick Schwark (2025); Bob Scott who served as the ACE Board President from 1999 to 2009 representing Poet Ethanol Products (2020); and one of ACE’s founding board members, Scott Parsley (2007).

Listen to an interview with Bob Scott below, who was president of ACE when the RFS was signed 20 years ago.

2025 ACE conference - Bob Scott, former ACE president (3:52)

2025 ACE Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Clean Fuels Says EPA SRE Decision Creates New Uncertainty

Cindy Zimmerman

Making the announcement Friday on Small Refinery Exemptions under the Renewable Fuel Standard, the Environmental Protection Agency also indicated it would propose a supplemental rule in the coming month to consider reallocating the associated RIN gallons and address the impact on the recently proposed 2026-2027 RFS volumes. Clean Fuels Alliance America hopes to work with EPA to quickly finalize this proposal, which will delay the finalization of the 2026 and 2027 rule.

Clean Fuels’ Vice President of Federal Affairs Kurt Kovarik expressed wariness of the agency’s award to the refiners of more than 1.4 billion Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) from compliance years 2023 and 2024 to be used for the delayed compliance deadline for 2024. “EPA’s course correction on RFS small refinery exemptions creates fresh uncertainty for America’s farmers and biodiesel, renewable diesel, and SAF producers. We look forward to working with the agency to ensure this decision does not unwind the strong signal of support issued in June through robust RFS volumes meant to drive growth and recognize investment in domestic fuels and American agriculture.”

In the recently proposed Renewable Fuel Standards for 2026 and 2027 and Draft Regulatory Impact Analysis, EPA reiterated that its analyses consistently show “all obligated parties—including small refiners—fully recover the costs of RFS compliance” through fuel sales.

Kovarik continued, “EPA’s announcement conflicts with its consistent finding that small refiners are not facing disproportionate economic hardships from RFS compliance. Refunding retired RINs has the potential to undercut current markets for domestic biodiesel, renewable diesel, and SAF as well as for American oilseed crops and other feedstocks. This announcement comes just as farmers begin planning to harvest the year’s soybean crop, which is expected to achieve a record-setting yield. We urge EPA to ensure that small refinery exemptions do not undermine the market for farmers and clean fuel producers.”

Biodiesel, biofuels, Clean Fuels Alliance, EPA, renewable diesel, RFS

RFA DC Office Welcomes New Government Affairs Associate

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association welcomes Ashley Viglione to the Washington, D.C. office as government affairs associate, supporting RFA’s advocacy and policy efforts.

In this position, Viglione will monitor legislative and regulatory developments, prepare policy briefings and updates for staff and members, and assist with scheduling meetings with policymakers. Viglione also will help coordinate RFA’s Washington and policy-related events, manage event logistics and oversee administrative duties for RFA’s political action committee.

Viglione earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and environmental studies, with a minor in sustainable design, from Denison University in 2024. She interned with RFA during the summers of her junior and senior years, contributing to policy initiatives and event coordination. After graduation, Viglione spent a year teaching English in Spain before returning to RFA in this role.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, Renewable Fuels Association, RFA

Biofuels Groups React to EPA SRE Actions

Cindy Zimmerman

The biofuels industry generally seems pleased with the EPA decision today on a backlog of Small Refinery Exemption (SRE) petitions, granting full exemptions to 63 petitions, granting partial exemptions to 77 petitions, denying 28 petitions, and determining 7 petitions to be ineligible.

Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Geoff Cooper says the approach seems reasonsable, but they will be studying it further. “While RFA continues to doubt that the small refineries receiving exemptions today truly experienced ‘disproportionate economic hardship’ due to the RFS, we are pleased to see EPA taking an approach to implementation of these exemptions that is minimally disruptive to the marketplace and affirms the agency’s intent to reallocate renewable fuel volumes lost to SREs. We appreciate that EPA is focused on an approach that maintains stability in the marketplace and ensures finalized annual volumes under the RFS are maintained,” said Cooper.

“In the days ahead, RFA will be further analyzing EPA’s new approach and rationale for determining disproportionate economic hardship. According to EPA’s previous analysis, all refiners—both small and large—recoup their RIN costs when they sell gasoline and diesel. Thus, there is no credible evidence that small refiners are disproportionately affected by RFS compliance, or that the financial impact of RFS compliance rises to a level anywhere close to ‘economic hardship.’ In any case, SREs were always intended to be a temporary measure and a bridge to compliance—not a permanent handout. Small refiners have now had two full decades to adapt their operations to comply with the RFS.”

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings commented on the decision at the end of the organization’s annual meeting today. “I think they threaded the legal needle about as well as they could have,” said Jennings. “It’s possible there will be additional litigation. You you had 63 full waivers. Are we going to challenge those? Are those refineries that were denied going to say we should have gotten an exemption? And do they litigate that maybe? The thing we have going for us is that any litigation on this front based on the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year has to go through the DC Circuit and that’s a better venue for these cases.”

ACE CEO Brian Jennings comments (3:46)

ACE, Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFA

EPA Announces Decisions on Small Refinery Waivers

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today took action on the backlog of 175 Small Refinery Exemption (SRE) petitions from 38 small refineries for 2016 – 2024 compliance years.

After carefully reviewing all information, EPA is granting full exemptions to 63 petitions, granting partial exemptions to 77 petitions, denying 28 petitions, and determining 7 petitions to be ineligible.

EPA is reaffirming the policy it set in the first Trump Administration through the 2020 Renewable Volume Obligation Rulemaking, granting partial relief (a 50 percent exemption) where a small refinery has demonstrated that it faces partial hardship. Under DOE’s 2011 Small Refinery Study, small refineries would have been denied any relief despite demonstrating partial hardship. With today’s action, EPA is getting the SRE program back on track with an approach that recognizes some small refineries are impacted more significantly than others and that EPA’s relief should reflect those differences.

The announcement was similar to what American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings was expecting. “We know that they’re likely to approve some, they’re likely to deny some. The refiners are gonna complain, and we might too,” said Jennings during an interview this week at the ACE Annual Conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “The good news is that the second Trump administration is taking the approach we were hoping for all along for the future…For 2026 and 2027 when, and there will be some, when the Trump EPA allows refinery exemptions, the gallons of renewable fuel those small refineries were supposed to blend will be reallocated to other refiners. In other words, the RVOs remain whole. And that’s exactly the way we wanted it done.”

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFS

RFA Kicking Off California E15 Retailer Education Program

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association is kicking off a major educational effort to help California’s fuel blenders, retailers and others in the supply chain prepare for the eventual arrival of the lower-cost E15 gasoline blend in the Golden State.

“RFA has spent years working to make E15 available in California, and an important part of this effort is to make sure that fuel marketers are ready to offer it as soon as possible,” said RFA Senior Vice President for Industry Relations and Market Development Robert White. “The coming months will be an important time to make sure retailers and others are prepared, and these workshops and other up-to-date resources we offer can help them take advantage of a fuel option that many Californians have been looking forward to for some time now.”

RFA has signed on as a platinum sponsor of the CFCA Summit, the annual trade show of the California Fuels & Convenience Alliance, the major statewide trade association representing the entire downstream fuel supply chain. In addition to a presence on the trade show floor, RFA will host three E15 educational workshops the week of the event, on September 2, 3 and 4. While the first workshop will be invitation-only for key CFCA members critical for E15’s launch in California, the next two will be open to all attendees.

Additional workshops are scheduled around the state after the conference:
Anaheim, Sept. 16
Palm Springs, Sept. 17
San Bernardino, Sept. 18
Union City, Sept. 23
Sacramento, Sept. 24
Bakersfield, Oct. 7
Costa Mesa, Oct. 8
San Diego, Oct. 9

Learn more about the effort at E15forCA.com.

E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Renewable Fuels Association, RFA

ACE CEO Optimistic About E15, SRE Ruling

Cindy Zimmerman

There is a lot of optimism in the ethanol industry right now that 2025 is the year the ethanol industry will finally win the ability to sell 15 percent ethanol blended fuel nationwide all year long.

American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings said at the organization’s annual meeting this week that the odds seem to favor passage of legislation before the end of the year. “The board asked me to give odds for our likelihood of getting the bipartisan National Fuel Retailer and Consumer Choice Act across the finish line this year. And I told them I thought it was better than 50 percent,” said Jennings. “Congressman Dusty Johnson bested me and he said it’s north of 70%. And that’s really encouraging to hear.”

Small refinery exemptions are back in the news this week with the Trump administration expected to possibly make an announcement today on the fate of nearly 200 pending SRE requests. Jennings hopes the roller coaster saga of exemptions over the past two presidential administrations will finally find some middle ground.

“It’s a really challenging job and they’re not going to make everyone happy. And we know that they’re likely to approve some, they’re likely to deny some. The refiners are gonna complain, and we might too,” said Jennings. “The good news is that the second Trump administration is taking the approach we were hoping for all along for the future…For 2026 and 2027 when, and there will be some, when the Trump EPA allows refinery exemptions, the gallons of renewable fuel those small refineries were supposed to blend will be reallocated to other refiners. In other words, the RVOs remain whole. And that’s exactly the way we wanted it done.”

Jennings also talks about 45Z and sustainable aviation fuel, as well as the RFS 20 years later, in this interview from the ACE Annual Conference in Sioux Falls, SD.

2025 ACE conference - Brian Jennings, ACE (16:19)

2025 ACE Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Lamberty Honored for 25 Years with ACE

Cindy Zimmerman

ACE Board President Dave Sovereign presents Ron Lamberty with 25 year award

Ron Lamberty was honored during the American Coalition for Ethanol annual conference this week in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for his 25 years of service with the organization.

Prior to joining ACE, Lamberty had worked in the fuel business for decades, doing every job in the wholesale and retail fuel business – from pumping gas and checking oil, to c-store management jobs, to operating three c-stores of his own. At ACE he works alongside fuel marketers as they add higher ethanol blends, spreading their success stories to other retailers interested in making the switch through ACE’s FlexFuelForward.com website he developed. Lamberty built and operated several ethanol “splash-blending” facilities in the 1980’s, and in the early 1990’s, he opened the nation’s first retail E85 fueling site, right in Sioux Falls.

Lamberty joined ACE as Market Development Director in 2000, was named Senior Vice President in 2011, and transitioned to Chief Marketing Officer in 2021, and he says he has loved every minute of it. “I get to work with the retailers and talk about the real work of selling the fuel…those retailers are the ones who sell our product,” said Lamberty. “Everybody talks about we need to do this for the environment, and do this for rural economies, for this for consumers, and I get to talk to the guys who actually do it and it’s been fun.”

In this interview, Lamberty also discusses the export opportunities for ethanol and being able to bring the fuel to retailers in other countries as well.

Interview with Ron Lamberty, ACE Chief Marketing Officer – 25 years with ACE
2025 ACE conference - Ron Lamberty, ACE (15:05)

2025 ACE Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, autogas, Ethanol, Ethanol News