RFA Resources Offer a Congressional Refresher on Lower-Cost E15

April 16, 2026

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(Renewable Fuels Association) With Congress back in session after a two-week recess and year-round E15 remaining a top priority to help American families cope with soaring fuel prices, the Renewable Fuels Association offers a slate of information to remind lawmakers, ethanol advocates, media, and others about the importance of the 15 percent ethanol blend.

“Nearly two months have passed since the House E15 Rural Domestic Energy Council’s deadline for introducing legislation that would permanently allow nationwide, year-round sale of E15,” said RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “With the House and Senate now back in session, and with gasoline prices hovering near record highs, we are again calling on Congress to honor its commitments and quickly adopt legislation providing year-round access to lower-cost E15. The stakes have never been higher for America’s farmers, who are facing the worst economic conditions in nearly 50 years, and for America’s working families, who have seen prices at the pump surge by over $1 per gallon in the last month.”

RFA offers a number of recently updated resources to help E15 advocates make the case for passage of the legislation, including:

Everything You Need to Know About E15 is an FAQ on the RFA website that provides easy answers to the more pressing questions about the fuel blend. Click here for a related infographic.
E15 Legislation: What They are Saying is a document sharing six pages of recent quotes from bipartisan political leaders and others underscoring the urgent need to get an E15 bill over the finish line.
Nationwide E15 Sales Jump 23% In 2025, Setting New Record is an analysis by RFA Chief Economist Scott Richman of nationwide E15 sales in 2025.
Iowa E15 Sales Up 60% in 2025, Shattering Record documents the rise of E15 in Iowa, showing what is possible when consumers are given a choice to use the lower-cost fuel.
Poll Finds Overwhelming Support for Expanding E15 to Lower Pump Prices reviews a nationwide survey in March indicating clear support of registered voters across party lines for expanding access to E15 through legislation. READ MORE

Related articles

Hope for E15 Legislation Remains Alive (Energy.Agwired.com)
White House assures voters gas prices will go down in summer despite ‘short-term volatility’ -- The timeline for gas hitting $3 was pushed back from previous predictions. (Politico Pro)
Motorists concerns over E15 fuel overblown, experts say (AFP Fact Check)

Excerpt from Energy.Agwired.com: Now that Congress is back in session after a two week break in the middle of not being able to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the ethanol industry remains optimistic there’s still a chance for nationwide E15 legislation to cross the finish line before the end of the year.

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A member of the rural council, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), told Brownfield this week that a deal has been ready for a month now but other issues have taken priority.

“I can’t tell you exactly when we’re going to get E15 done, but we are going to get E15 done,” Johnson said. “But even without E15, I just still think Americans understand why they should be worrying more about what energy in a cornfield looks like than worrying about what energy in an oil field looks like. You don’t have to have a closed Straits of Hormuz to understand why the American farmer is a lot more responsible partner.”

RFA’s Cooper said in the latest Ethanol Report podcast that they remain optimistic. “If there was ever a time to get this done, it is right now. Farmers are struggling. Consumers are struggling with higher prices at the pump. We all know what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz or not happening. So, the stars have aligned to get E15 done,” he said. “Whether it’s legislation providing emergency assistance to farmers, whether it is a supplemental military funding package for what’s happening in Iran, there will be, we think, several bites at the apple that would be appropriate and create an opening to attach this E-15 legislation. So that’s our hope. We haven’t given up.” READ MORE

Excerpt from AFP: Gasoline prices remain high in North America amid mixed signals about talks to end the war in the Middle East, leading to misinformation about policies impacting the sale of E15 -- a traditionally cheaper fuel containing a higher concentration of ethanol. But contrary to claims on TikTok, there is no plan to universally require stations to offer the biofuel in the United States or Canada, and experts told AFP concerns about purported dangers of the gas blend to car engines are overblown for vehicles manufactured after 2001.

"I heard, as of May 1, all gas is gonna be cut with 15 percent ethanol. From my understanding, ethanol is going to destroy my engine. So essentially, they're forcing us to buy electric vehicles," a TikTok user said in a video posted April 5, 2026.

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But posts claiming E15 will be the only fuel available starting in May are false.

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The US Department of Energy classes ethanol as a renewable and domestically produced fuel (archived here).

E15 is typically cheaper, but its sale is restricted in some locations during summer under regulations aimed at limiting air pollution, according to analysts at commodity market intelligence group, Argus.

However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authorized a temporary emergency waiver to allow nationwide sales of E15 this summer (archived here).

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the emergency action was aimed at keeping gas prices affordable, increasing the fuel supply and allowing for "consumer choice."

According to the EPA, E15 is currently offered at over 3,000 gas stations across the United States. And without the waiver, E15 gasoline could not be "used by roughly half of the country this summer" (archived here).

An EPA spokesperson also told AFP on April 13 that multiple gasoline blends -- including E10 -- will remain available after May 1.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a website that monitors prices across all 50 US states, said the discourse about ethanol on TikTok is far from factual (archived here and here).

"The E15 waiver simply allows a separate product from gasoline to continue to be sold through the summer," he told AFP on April 10.

Similarly, summer ban waivers are nothing new, deployed in 2024 by President Joe Biden's administration and others years before that (archived here and here).

Engine worries limited

Daniel Ciolkosz, an associate research professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Pennsylvania State University, told AFP that the risks to car engines from E15 gas, as portrayed on social media, are also overblown (archived here).

When ethanol was first introduced to the fuel supply network in the United States, people reported operational issues with antique engines, as well as very small engines in lawnmowers and outboard boats, he said.

But, Ciolkosz explained, these problems have been addressed by fuel additives or the use of "ethanol free" blends of fuel that remain available in almost all areas of the United States.

The EPA only approves E15 for use in car models from later than 2001, as well as flex‑fuel vehicles (archived here).

Vehicles that should avoid using E15 majorly consist of models older than 2000, "motorcycles, diesel engines, nonroad engines, and any motors that prohibit E15," according to an EPA spokesperson.

Consumers should also note that E15 usually offers a slightly lower fuel economy than E10, GasBuddy's De Haan remarked (archived here).

Canadian claims

In Canada, similar posts on Facebook have been warning against an imminent, nationwide switch to high-ethanol blends, recommending looking into "Native reserve gas stations" to maintain access to "pure" gasoline.

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Environment and Climate Change Canada spokeswoman Samantha Bayard told AFP these claims are misconstrued.

The country's Clean Fuel Regulations (CFR) "do not require that every batch of gasoline sold in Canada contain ethanol" (archived here).

"It is up to suppliers to determine the most appropriate way to meet the requirements of the Regulations, for example through inclusion of ethanol or other renewable fuels in some or all of their fuel supplies," she said on April 9.

Current CFR rules require a minimum of five percent ethanol or biodiesel blending in gasoline nationally (archived here).

According to the US Grains and Bioproducts Council, the Canadian average blend rate has exceeded the CFR requirement since 2012, driven by provincial mandates including those implemented in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan (archived here).

In Ontario, under the Cleaner Transportation Fuels regulation, suppliers are required to blend 11 percent renewable content in regular-grade gasoline from 2025 to 2027. The requirement increases to 13 percent in 2028 and 15 percent in 2030 and onward (archived here).

AFP has debunked other claims about the sustainability of electric vehicles, as well as domestic and international gas prices. READ MORE