RFA on Display at Farm Progress Show

Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association was on-site at the 2025 Farm Progress Show this week in Decatur, Illinois to talk about the latest ethanol news and moving to higher blends.

The RFA display near the media tent attracted attention with a new 2025 Chevrolet Trax flex fuel vehicle on display as well as an FFV conversion kit to discuss the ease of switching over a conventional vehicle to flex fuel.

RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper; Robert White, Senior Vice President for Industry Relations and Market Development; and Jared Mullendore, Policy Counsel and Director of Government Affairs, all were on-hand to talk with show attendees and the media.

Cooper discussed EPA’s latest announcement on small refinery exemptions and how boosting ethanol markets can help farmers deal with a large crop and low prices. White talked about bringing E15 to California, and how RFA is helping prepare fuel retailers, as well as the critical importance of legislation allowing year-round E15 sales nationwide, while Mullendore showed off the vehicles on display and shared how farmers can convert their own vehicles to run on higher ethanol blends.

FPS25 Interview with RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper (10:43)

FPS25 Interview with Robert White, RFA (6:46)

FPS25 Interview with Jared Mullendore, RFA (4:57)

2025 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Audio, E15, E85, Ethanol, Ethanol News, Farm Progress Show, Flex Fuel Vehicles, Renewable Fuels Association, RFA

Preparing for 45Z Without the Guidance

Cindy Zimmerman

L-R: Dana Jackson, Faith Larson, Rebecca Johnson

The good news is that the Clean Fuel Production Credit (45Z) was one of the few provisions preserved from the Inflation Reduction Act in the One Big Beautiful Bill. The bad news is, there is still no guidance from the Treasury Department and no clear answer when it might be released.

What that means for ethanol producers and farmers and what steps are needed now to position for eligibility and success was the topic of a panel at last week’s American Coalition for Ethanol conference. ACE CEO Brian Jennings moderated the panel of experts which included:
Dana Jackson, RSM US LLP, Partner, Clean Energy Incentives
Faith Larson, Mickelson & Company, VP Renewables & Legal Counsel
Rebecca Johnson, CPA, Christianson PLLP, Tax and Research Senior Manager

2025 ACE - 45Z Tax Credit panel (54:26)

Rebecca Johnson with Christianson PLLP says it is frustrating to everyone to still know so little. “There’s a lot of complexity, there’s still a lot of uncertainty and we don’t have proposed guidance from the IRS…but on top of that we have a lot of people that are getting very creative within the rules that we do know and that can lead to a lot of risk in the industry,” said Johnson during an interview after the panel.

She says the main thing producers need to do is document. “Documentation is a huge thing so make sure you’re documenting everything. If you’re not sure what you need to document make sure you are reaching out to someone to get a list of things you should document,” said Johnson. “The biggest thing is don’t wait till the last minute try to make the decisions that you can and at least have a game plan come the end of the year.”

2025 ACE - Rebecca Johnson, CPA, Christianson PLLP (4:55)

2025 ACE Conference photo album

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

Biofuels on USDA Deputy Secretary’s Mind at 2025 FPS

Cindy Zimmerman

USDA Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden filled in for his boss at the 2025 Farm Progress Show Tuesday, chatting on the mainstage with Mike Pearson of This Week in AgriBusiness and answering question from farm reporters on site, expressing the administration’s strong support for domestic biofuels.

“I think it’s fair to say that the second Trump administration has been the most pro-biofuels administration that we’ve had,” said Vaden. “We at USDA are very supportive of the Environmental Protection Agency and the proposed renewable volume obligations. We think those numbers are wonderful and are where they need to be and meet the current ability of America to produce biofuels. But we’re even more excited about the proposal that they have recently put out for public comment to reallocate those RINS that are being waived because of the small refinery waivers which EPA is legally required to provide.”

On the trade front, Vaden talked about the Section 301 investigation into Brazil’s trading practices and increasing export market opportunities. “When it comes to where our trade focus needs to be for agriculture, row crops and that includes biofuels are at the top of the list,” Vaden said. “This is our top ask…new markets for our row crops farmers. Corn, soybens, rice, cotton, you name it, and we are doing everything possible to break open these new markets.”

On stage and answering media questions, Vaden also discussed the USDA team and nominees, agency reorganization, modernization of funds distribution to farmers, regional USDA hubs, farm bill future, commodity prices, short term relief, meetings at FPS, staffing questions, and more.

Listen to both below:
USDA Deputy Secretary Vaden mainstage (27:18)

USDA Deputy Secretary Vaden presser (12:33)

2025 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

Audio, biofuels, Ethanol, Ethanol News, RFS, USDA

Ethanol Plant CO2 Can Produce Green Methanol

Cindy Zimmerman

Prior to the kickoff of the American Coalition for Ethanol Conference last week, CapCO2 Solutions held an open house at the AgriEnergy Innovations ethanol facility in Luverne, Minnesota to showcase a new collaboration utilizing CO2 waste to produce green methanol.

“Methanol has been around for 100 years and it’s almost all made nowadays with fossil fuel, so it’s not a net zero product. But if you can make it with CO2 from ethanol plants, it is a net zero product,” said Dr. Jeff Bonar, CapCO2 CEO, during an interview at The ACE. “The shipping industry has decided that’s their next generation fuel and it’s a key part of SAF. So lots of people want green methanol and there’s a lot of scrambling to figure out how to do that in quantity. And ethanol plants are the perfect place to do it.”

Bonar had a lot of interest in the potential during the ACE Conference, which had over 200 attendees at the meeting last week in Sioux Falls. “We have our first plan in Laverne, we have a lot of other people who want to be number two. So our goal is to have number one working and have another big group kicking the tires,” said Bonar.

2025 ACE - Cap CO2 interview (4:36)

2025 ACE Conference photo album

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

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