House Passes Standalone E15 Bill After Decoupling From Farm Package

The House of Representatives passed a measure offering access to E15 during the summertime smog period on Wednesday, after initially decoupling the legislation from the farm bill currently pending before the legislature.

The Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act passed by a vote of 218-203 in a bipartisan effort after hours of negotiations from lawmakers over whether to include the measure as part of the House’s version of the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 or cleave it from the package altogether in favor of a standalone effort.

The successful vote comes amid a multi-week saga in which proponents for the ethanol and refining industries lobbied for the package to include a legislative compromise that would trade E15 access during the summertime smog period spanning June 1 to Sept. 15 for certain concessions on the EPA’s small refinery exemption (SRE) program.

That compromise, which was crafted by members of the House’s Rural Domestic Energy Council and first issued as an amendment by Republican Rep. Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota, offered the long sought access to the fuel blend in exchange for significant restrictions on the SRE program and language preventing the agency from reallocating volumes associated with the relief back into the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Initially viewed as a notable step for groups that have been historically at odds over those issues, the amendment later lost steam in negotiations as part of the overall farm package last month once the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an informal analysis that found its inclusion would result in a notable impact on the deficit over a ten-year period.

The CBO analysis found that the bill would result in an increase in direct spending by $2.7 billion and revenues by $400 million, which would result in a net increase in the deficit of $2.3 billion from 2026 through 2036.

Virtually all of that deficit impact would stem from the bill’s SRE provisions, as CBO noted that “taken by itself, allowing year-round sales of E15 would tend to reduce the deficit.”

Yet the CBO did warn that passage of the measure could have a negative effect on others in the renewable fuel landscape, as prohibited reallocation would lead to lower RVO levels and thus a reduction in demand for biomass-based diesel.

That reduction in demand could affect soybean supply, the CBO continued in its report, adding that “the loss in demand for soybeans resulting from the prohibition on EPA from reallocating exemptions for small refining companies would more than offset the modest positive effects of E15 on corn prices.”

That finding was supported in another analysis issued on the subject this week by the University of Missouri’s Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI), which found that “E15 expansion raises corn demand but reduces soybean oil demand, causing trade-offs in crop and livestock sectors.”

Concerns over the size of the farm bill ultimately led to lawmakers offering a vote on Wednesday to either retain the Fischbach amendment or spin it off as a standalone bill via resolution.

As a matter of procedure, the language in the Fischbach amendment was essentially pasted over the original version of the Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act.

The vote on the resolution split straight down the party line by Wednesday afternoon, with House Republicans moving to splice the bill from the funding package entirely.

Following that vote, a couple of Republican lawmakers noted in discussion over the standalone bill that they were concerned the language had not gone through the standard committee process due to its initial inclusion as part of the farm package, with Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania even moving to recommit the bill back to the House Committee on Energy & Commerce for further consideration. That effort failed, triggering a successful vote on the bill before the entire House directly thereafter.

The Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act will now head toward the Senate, where it faces steeper opposition from senators in states whose refining operations could be impacted by the reduction in SRE’s offered by the EPA. But the measure will not be without support in that chamber, as Republican Sen. Charles Grassley and several other Midwest lawmakers have long viewed E15 access as a legislative priority.

Passage of the bill was expectedly heralded Wednesday night by proponents for the ethanol industry that have long sought the seasonal allowance for the fuel blend.

In a release on Wednesday, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Geoff Cooper said the vote “is a hard-fought victory for consumers seeking lower prices at the pump, farmers seeking new market opportunities, and American families who want cleaner air and greater energy independence.”

“The legislation gives Americans the freedom to choose E15 and removes three decades of red tape that had stifled competition and choice in the marketplace,” Cooper said.

And Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA), said the vote “is a victory 15 years in the making.”

Shaw went on to rebuff concerns over prospects for the bill in the Senate, noting that “to the naysayers that claim Senate E15 approval is impossible, I’ll simply note that’s the same thing you said about House passage just days ago.”

“Confuse Midwest ‘nice’ with a lack of fortitude at your own peril,” Shaw said. And Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy, said the passage “brings us one step closer to delivering real savings at the pump.”

“We’re deeply grateful to bipartisan lawmakers from across the nation who always stood strong and rebuffed pressure to protect refinery profits at the expense of American consumers,” Skor said.

Brian Jennings, CEO at the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), said “as gas prices continue to skyrocket across the United States, allowing E15 to be sold year-round is the fastest way to save consumers at the pump and help make America more energy secure in the face of the oil supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz.”

The bill could face growing opposition from other members of the renewable fuel landscape however, as it was criticized by the Sustainable Advanced Biofuel Refiners (SABR) coalition — citing the “dramatic” potential reduction in biodiesel volumes referenced in the CBO report.

“SABR is a biofuel advocate, so we support E15, but this current package is not the answer,” SABR Chair Tom Brooks said. “We would like to engage constructively with all stakeholders to find a more measured policy that is not so disproportionately harmful to soybean farmers and biodiesel producers who do not even receive any offsetting benefits from the package.”

The bill also drew concern from the American Soybean Association (ASA), as a spokesperson told OPIS that the group advised its members not to support the language within the Fischbach amendment before Wednesday’s vote.

Reporting by Patrick Newkumet, pnewkumet@opisnet.com; Editing by Jordan Godwin, jgodwin@opisnet.com