California Passes E15 Clean-Up Legislation

Cindy Zimmerman

California’s E15 Clean-Up Act (SB 795) cleared the California Legislature unanimously late last night and is headed to Governor Newsom’s desk.

The bill removes the vapor-recovery-equipment barrier that has prevented California retailers from actually dispensing E15, but additional regulatory action by CARB and the State Fire Marshal still remain before motorists can finally be free to buy E15.

“The passage of this bill means Californians will finally be able to enjoy savings at the pump with a lower-cost fuel blend that’s also better for the environment,” said Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “We thank principal authors Sens. Bob Archuletta and Suzette Martinez Valladares, and Assemblymember David Alvarez, as well as the entire bipartisan California Problem Solvers Caucus for their leadership and commitment to reducing gas prices for California families. We are also grateful to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his ongoing strong support of E15.”

RFA will continue its work to educate California fuel retailers and others about implementing E15 sales, with a set of workshops coming to San Diego Sept. 9 in conjunction with the CFCA Summit.

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) senior vice president and chief marketing officer Ron Lamberty also praised the news out of California. “This a major step toward providing retailers a clear path to begin offering less expensive E15 fuel to California drivers using their existing fuel storage and dispensing equipment. We had been critical of state regulators for delaying making E15 available at the pump, and they pointed out rules and regulations preventing them doing so despite the earlier bill’s urgency designation. This legislation corrects that oversight.”

ACE will be also be at the CFCA Summit next week. “ACE has participated in this show since 2001 when retailers were preparing to add E10 for the first time, and we look forward to helping California retailers now move toward permanent E15 sales,” Lamberty said.

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

EPA Grants Refinery Exemptions, Proposes Reallocation

Cindy Zimmerman

The Environmental Protection Agency today announced its decisions on 34 individual small refinery exemption petitions for the 2025 compliance year, granting full (100 percent) exemptions to 18 petitions, partial (50 percent) exemptions to 11 petitions, denying three petitions, and determining two petitions to be ineligible.

Based on that analysis, EPA is exempting 1.76 billion RFS compliance credits, known as Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), for 29 small refineries. EPA will propose to reallocate 100 percent of the difference between projected and actual exempted volumes for 2025 SREs into the 2026 and 2027 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs) before the end of October 2026.

Due to the agency’s 2025 SRE decisions, EPA will also be announcing a direct final rule to extend the 2025 RVO compliance date by 30 days to October 1, 2026. This will allow the market to appropriately account for the additional RINs.

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper said they still believe most of the SREs issued are completely unjustified but they are somewhat encouraged that EPA is taking steps to minimize the damage through reallocation. “The proposed plan laid out by EPA today creates a pathway for ensuring no net loss in renewable fuel demand, and it is crucially important that the agency moves quickly to faithfully implement this approach. At a time when oil refiners are reporting record-high profit margins, gasoline supplies are tightening, and consumers are paying record-high prices at the pump, the administration should focus on efforts to increase—not decrease—the domestic production and use of more affordable biofuels like ethanol,” said Cooper.

“The RFS has been in place for more than 20 years, and Congress never intended for SREs to be a permanent entitlement for Fortune 500 oil refining companies,” Cooper added. “The exemptions were always meant to be a temporary measure to give truly small, independent refiners a little more time to come into compliance with the RFS program. Unfortunately, many so-called small refiners have been allowed to exploit this loophole for two decades, putting American consumers, farmers, and biofuel producers on the losing end.”

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings also stressed the implications the SREs pose for agricultural producers. “American farmers continue to struggle to make ends meet, while oil refineries are posting record profits. In this context, it does not make sense to exempt any refiners from blending low-cost renewable fuels into their outrageously expensive petroleum products,” said Jennings. “Nevertheless, we appreciate that EPA is taking steps to reallocate the exempt volume to non-exempt refiners and look forward to seeing that promise fulfilled. Until reallocation is final and complete, every exempted gallon is an economic drain on rural America.”

Jennings expressed concerns about the impact today’s action might have on work to get nationwide, year-round E15 passed by Congress. “This SRE controversy has essentially hijacked efforts in the Senate to finally adopt legislation simply allowing retailers nationwide to sell low-cost E15 to their customers year-round. Given EPA’s actions today, we once again call on the Senate to work in a bipartisan way to get E15 legislation over the finish line this year,” said Jennings.

ACE, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Oil, Renewable Fuels Association, RFA, RFS

California E15 Dreaming Continues

Cindy Zimmerman

The California legislature is considering a bill that would finally allow E15 to be sold in the state, nearly a year after lawmakers unanimously passed and the governor signed legislation in 2025 allowing those sales. But it must be passed by midnight tonight when the legislative session comes to a close.

The E15 Clean-Up Act (Calif. SB 795) was amended in the Assembly over the weekend in an effort to allow the authorization of gasoline vapor control systems for E15 compatibility. The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) has been working closely with California state Sen. Bob Archuletta (D-Pico Rivera), Assemblymember David Alvarez (D-San Diego), Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares (R-Valencia) and the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus to get the legislation to this point.

According to RFA, the bill would allow retailers to use existing Stage II equipment to dispense E15 if the manufacturer of that equipment submits a statement of compatibility to the relevant state agencies.

The California Environmental Policy Council recently voted unanimously to approve the E15 multimedia analysis, the final step in the regulatory process to formally approve E15. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is expected to approve its E15 regulation at its Sept. 24 meeting.

However, RFA’s Robert White says the dispenser problem remains even with CARB approval. “Until the resolution is reached on stage 2 vapor recovery, the final rulemaking from CARB is for naught because we will still have that equipment issue,” said White in the latest Ethanol Report podcast. “But hopefully a path forward is coming soon and consumers will finally get that opportunity to embrace that lower price product.”

No matter what happens, White says RFA will continue working with retailers in California to get them ready to sell E15 as soon as they can. “We think we’re getting to the end and we need more retailers at the ready than what we already have,” White says. “California will be different than any other state because the retail infrastructure is more ready than any other state. They can sell it year round as we still wait on Congress and the price point will be so much less and at the same time it meets all of their environmental goals that they’ve been trying to achieve for a very long time.”

RFA will be kicking off its retailer workshops next week at the CFCA Summit, organized by the California Fuels and Convenience Alliance, the state’s largest annual gathering for the petroleum and convenience store industries.

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

Ethanol Under Fire

Cindy Zimmerman

Image posted on Sen. Mike Lee’s X account

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) launched a full-fledged attack on corn ethanol over the weekend with nine posts on his X account, calling on President Trump to “end the tyranny of the Cornography Caucus” and saying all Republicans should categorically reject federal “ethanol mandates” that “let government pick winners and losers in the economy.”

Starting with a link to a Washington Post opinion piece written by Heritage Foundation Executive Vice President Derrick Morgan calling for reducing biofuel standards in gasoline, Sen. Lee went scorched earth on the ethanol industry and corn growers on August 29, including a post saying “Americans are getting screwed at the gas pump by Big Corn, which profits enormously from federal mandates requiring us to use corn to fuel our cars.”

Lee also put up an X polling question, which received over 5200 votes saying no to, “Should the government force us to drive corn-burning cars—knowing that it adds significantly to what Americans pay at the gas pump—just so we can make a few rich agricultural giants even richer?”

As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Lee is a longtime opponent of the the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and is also against year-round E15, which is included in the Senate version of the Farm Bill the agriculture committee is expected to revisit after the August recess. His attacks come as the Trump administration is poised to approve small refinery exemptions as soon as today covering more than 1.8 billion RINs (renewable identification numbers), well above the roughly 1 billion RINs the EPA had previously projected. Applicants include plants owned by Marathon Petroleum and Chevron. President Trump is scheduled to host refining executives at the White House tomorrow.

Ag groups and biofuel producers have pushed back, arguing the extra waivers would undercut the record-high 2026 RFS volumes finalized in March. The administration is reportedly considering an offset by adding at least 500 million RINS to the 2027 quotas.

Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFS

DOE Report Shows E15 Savings

Cindy Zimmerman

A report published by the Department of Energy found that E15 prices in April were up to $0.47 per gallon less than standard E10 gasoline on average, an 11.5 percent discount. The DOE report, which is based on actual pricing data collected from the marketplace, also showed E15 costs 8 percent less at the pump on an energy basis—meaning drivers choosing E15 pay less per mile traveled than drivers choosing E10.

The Clean Cities and Communities Alternative Fuel Report is a quarterly publication that has been collecting and reporting alternative fuel prices since April 2000, and the report in July was the first time it included E15 prices. It shows that the average E15 price in April was $3.62 per gallon compared to an average E10 price of $4.09 per gallon. The data also show that regular gasoline prices jumped by $1.20 per gallon, or 42 percent, between January and April as global oil supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz caused retail prices to spike.

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper said the report further underscores the fact that expanded ethanol consumption, driven by the Renewable Fuel Standard and its RIN market mechanism, is leading to lower prices at the pump for American consumers.

“While a handful of stubborn oil refining companies continue to suggest that the RFS somehow leads to higher prices at the pump, this new data from DOE proves that the exact opposite is true,” said Cooper. “After the Trump administration finalized the highest-ever RFS volumes back in March, the marketplace responded by expanding the supply of lower-cost E15. As this report shows, American drivers who have access to E15 are saving real money with each fill-up, and those savings are being enabled by the RFS and RIN values. Undermining the RFS with small refinery exemptions, as is reportedly being considered, would reverse this progress and lead to higher prices at the pump. Granting massive SREs would do nothing at all to lower pump prices and, in fact, would have the opposite effect.”

E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News

Oil Industry Analyst Says Refining Crunch Driving Prices

Cindy Zimmerman

The energy market’s real squeeze is not a shortage of crude oil, but of refining capacity, according to oil industry analyst Tom Kloza who spoke last week at the American Coalition for Ethanol annual conference.

Kloza said many observers remain fixed on the Strait of Hormuz while missing a broader problem that drones have damaged refineries in Russia, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, which he argued, is a “game changer” comparable to the introduction of the Gatling gun.

“People tend to concentrate on the price of crude, which has been moderate,” said Kloza in an interview at the conference. “I mean, if you average the price of crude oil for the last 25 years, you come up with a number very close to where we are. So crude oil prices are by no means extraordinary. Prices for gasoline and diesel are, though. Gasoline costs about $140 most of the world, ex-tax, and diesel fetches a price of about $180, and I think it could go well over $200 a barrel before this is over.”

China is the other large wild card. Last month 62 percent of its vehicle sales were electric. Beijing’s command economy has cut crude imports from the 11.5–12 million barrels a day seen earlier to roughly 8–8.5 million, muting strength in crude while leaving product markets tight. Diesel and jet fuel, Kloza noted, are “paying the bills for what may be an incredible party for refineries.”

Kloza expects wild swings and possible near-term softness in diesel after unprecedented premiums, but he still sees a “very, very scary picture” of $5–$7 diesel over the next six months. However, he says that same tightness makes this “the” market for ethanol blends since E15’s octane and price advantage versus gasoline “makes perfect sense” economically.

Learn more insights from Kloza in this interview:

Interview with Tom Kloza, Chief Energy Advisor, Gulf Oil
Tom Kloza, Gulf Oil 6:56

2026 ACE Conference photo album

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

45Z Playbook Panel at ACE Conference

Cindy Zimmerman

L-R: Kari Buttenhoff, Christianson; Kate Zook, USDA; Jamey Cline, Christianson

A big focus of last week’s American Coalition for Ethanol 39th annual conference was on the 45Z clean fuel production tax credit, with the final panel on Friday serving up an overview of policy, modeling, and compliance for biofuel producers.

USDA released its final guidelines for the production of regenerative agricultural biofuel feedstocks in June and Kate Zook, Acting Director of USDA’s Office of Energy and Environmental Policy, explained that it covers corn, soy, sorghum, and spring canola. “The official calculator that is used to calculate the farm scale carbon intensity is USDA’s Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator,” said Zook. “It reports out in CO2e per bushel and it contains all the practices and crops with USDA’s rule. So it is meant to work in tandem with USDA’s rule.”

Zook said the Department of Energy still must incorporate the calculator into the GREET model required by statute, and then Treasury must formally cite the USDA regulations. “We know from the regulatory agenda that 45Z is aimed to be finalized in November of this year,” she said. “This is a huge deal. It’s a huge deal for agriculture. If there’s a way that we can pass that value down to the farm and allow the farmer to have some power in this market with their grain, that’s an excellent opportunity.”

Kari Buttenhoff and Jamey Cline, both with Christianson PLLP, provided some insight into the modeling and compliance pieces for ethanol producers, acknowledging that every plant is different and the program is complicated and still not yet finalized. “With different markets comes uncertainty,” said Cline. “And this is exacerbated by the fact we don’t have a final rule for 45Z and have sought interpretation for very complex regulations since they were released. The industry is having to comply with a new regulation that doesn’t have all the rules down yet on paper, nor are they fully understood. In fact, because the market was being developed in real time, pricing and other benefits had to be developed.”

Listen to the panel conversation:
The 45Z Playbook: Policy, Modeling, and Compliance for Biofuel Producers – panel
Kate Zook, Acting Director, Office of Energy and Environmental Policy, USDA
Kari Buttenhoff, Christianson
Jamey Cline, Partner, Christianson PLLP
45Z Playbook panel 54:44

2026 ACE Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, Carbon, corn, Ethanol, Ethanol News

EPA Extension for Refiners Causes Uncertainty

Cindy Zimmerman

Reports that the Environmental Protection Agency could extend the September 1 deadline for refiners to demonstrate compliance with their 2025 Renewable Fuel Standard obligations, and potentially grant many more Small Refinery Exemptions (SRE) than expected, are sending shockwaves through the industry and causing chaos in the biofuels markets as prices for Renewable Identification Numbers (D6 RINs) dropped significantly.

Rumors are that EPA may grant nearly double the number amount of SREs forecast earlier this year, which was less than one billion gallons of exemptions for 2025. “The last time EPA granted small refinery exemptions at the rumored scale (1.8 Billion) the biofuel industry lost over $6 billion and renewable fuel credits collapsed by up to 78% and gas prices actually went UP 12%,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on X. “Mr president this is an issue of helping farmers over BIG OIL.”

After just finalizing record RFS blending levels earlier this year, it would be bad policy for the Trump administration to reverse course now, said Monte Shaw of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. “We are hoping this is just another false rumor floated in the media to roil the markets so some credit trader can try to make a buck. But if there is substance behind the rumors, it is not too late to change course and to commit to a robust RFS – a commitment President Trump made in March, a commitment that is working, and a commitment that EPA should not undermine.”

“If a new methodology is adopted that grants nearly all refinery exemption requests for the 2025 compliance year, that would equate to roughly one billion lost biofuel gallons,” said Shaw. “And the damage wouldn’t stop there. Applied to 2026-2027, it would mean nearly a billion lost gallons each year going forward as well. So-called record-breaking RFS levels don’t mean a thing if they are reversed through unjustified refinery exemptions.”

According to the American Soybean Association, if EPA approves a significantly higher amount of small refinery exemption petitions, the increase in biofuel volumes exempted from the RFS could eliminate around 500 million gallons of biomass-based diesel demand and cost U.S. soybean farmers approximately $1 billion in lost revenue.

“At a time when soybean farmers are already struggling to support our farms, we cannot afford for the rug to be pulled out from under one of our most important sources of domestic demand,” said ASA Vice President Dave Walton, a soybean farmer from Iowa. ASA is urging President Trump and officials in the White House to reject any proposal that seeks to broaden the formula used to determine refinery exemptions from biofuel blending requirements in a way that would hurt farmers and erase demand for biofuels.

Biodiesel, biofuels, EPA, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Soybean, Soybeans

Ethanol Exports Expected to Set Another New Record

Cindy Zimmerman

U.S. ethanol exports are on track to set a new record for the third consecutive year, according to Ryan LeGrand, president and CEO of the U.S. Grains and Bioproducts Council. Speaking last week at the American Coalition for Ethanol’s 39th annual conference, LeGrand highlighted robust demand driven by expanding middle classes abroad and supportive policies in key markets.

“When the marketing year ends this year, August 31st, we will have set a record three years in a row for ethanol exports,” said LeGrand. “Two years ago, it was 1.75 billion gallons. Last year, 2.15 billion gallons. This year, we’re going to finish out at the end of this month…at 2.35 billion gallons.”

Including nearly 200 million gallons of ethanol shipped to Japan as ETBE, LeGrand says the total will exceed 2.5 billion gallons. Through June, volumes were already up almost 10 percent year-over-year, with notable gains in Canada, the European Union, and even some shipments back to Brazil.

Canada remains the top market and could become the first billion-gallon destination as provinces push beyond E10. The EU and UK follow, with the recent U.S.-UK trade deal granting duty-free access to the full E10 market. India takes significant industrial volumes, while Colombia rounds out the top five.

Looking ahead, LeGrand pointed to Japan and Mexico as the highest-potential growth markets. Together, full E10 adoption in those two countries alone could generate 2.3 billion gallons of annual demand. Japan has committed to E10 by 2030, with trials starting in Okinawa in 2028; the U.S. expects to capture the majority share. Mexico’s allowable blend stands at 5.8%, with no blending yet in major cities, but President Claudia Sheinbaum supports higher blends, and LeGrand anticipates E10 within about 18 months.

To learn more, listen to LeGrand’s presentation and follow-up interview from the ACE conference.

Trade Keynote: Ryan LeGrand, President & CEO, U.S. Grains & BioProducts Council
Ryan LeGrand, USGBC, remarks 30:00

Interview with Ryan LeGrand, President and CEO, U.S. Grains and Bioproducts Council
Ryan LeGrand, USGBC, interview 11:35

2026 ACE Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Export Exchange, Exports, USGC

ACE Grassroots and Paul Dana Awards

Cindy Zimmerman

At its 39th annual conference last week in Minneapolis, the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) presented awards honoring those who have given outstanding service to the ethanol industry.

ACE Grassroots Award winner Kenton Johnson

Kenton Johnson, CEO of Granite Falls Energy & Heron Lake BioEnergy, was recognized with the organization’s Grassroots award who epitomize ACE’s efforts from the ground up.

The strength of ACE is found within the collective grassroots, devoted individuals who often perform behind the scenes to advance the cause of ethanol. Johnson is a farmer and longtime board member of several ethanol plants and has been a steadfast champion of ACE, consistently encouraging plants to become members and actively supporting the organization’s mission. His efforts have been instrumental in growing and strengthening ACE’s membership base.

“I’ve had a fantastic experience here at ACE,” said Johnson. “I think I was 22 or 23 years old when I first stepped on the board and went on my first Hill visit and kind of dove into policy with Ron Lamberty and Brian Jennings and some key board members that have kind of mentored me along the way. And it’s a real honor to win this award.”

Interview with Kenton Johnson, CEO Granite Falls Energy & Heron Lake BioEnergy, Grassroots Award recipient
Kenton Johnson, Grassroots Award 4:53

ACE’s Ron Lamberty presents the Paul Dana Award to Brian Werner for the MN Bio-Fuels Association

Fifteen years ago, ACE created the Marketing Vision Award in memory of Indy Racing League driver Paul Dana, to recognize leadership in promoting the expansion of the availability of higher blends of ethanol to consumers. The Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association received the award this year for its sustained leadership in expanding ethanol demand and increasing consumer access to higher ethanol blends that have contributed to Minnesota achieving five consecutive years of record E15 sales.

Executive Director Brian Werner accepted the award on behalf of the organization. “It’s really an honor to be recognized with this award from the American Coalition for Ethanol. They do so much work with grassroots, with ethanol plants, with ethanol plant board members. So it’s really an honor to be recognized for the work that we are also doing at the grassroots level. Going out working with fuel retailers, helping them install new infrastructure that can accommodate higher blends of ethanol like E15, but also doing that consumer education piece.”

Interview with Brian Werner, Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association, Paul Dana Marketing Vision Award
Brian Wermer, MN Bio-Fuels Assoc. 6:23

Werner also participated in the retailer panel at the conference with ACE CMO Ron Lamberty and Jeff Wilkerson with Pearson Fuels.
Retailer Panel 43:52

2026 ACE Conference photo album

ACE, ACE Ethanol Conference, Audio, E15, Ethanol, Ethanol News