Senate OKs Energy, Enviro Provisions in NDAA — but No Biofuels

October 10, 2025

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by Andres Picon (Politico Pro E&E Daily) Senators adopted amendments on minerals and nuclear energy, but a proposal to boost E15 ethanol sales fell out. -- The Senate passed its version of the annual defense policy bill Thursday night after adopting amendments on nuclear energy, critical minerals and illegal fishing, among other priorities.

Some amendments that lawmakers had been considering previously — including a bipartisan proposal to make year-round E15 ethanol sales permanent — fell out of contention after weeks of deliberations.

Senators passed the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, S. 2296, on a 77-20 vote.

The House passed its version of the bill in September after adopting partisan amendments on electric vehicles and various culture-war issues. The two chambers will work to craft a compromise NDAA and pass the final version before the end of the year.

The Senate NDAA, like the House version, leans heavily into nuclear energy. The Armed Services committees loaded up the bills with language pushing the Pentagon to embrace advanced reactors in direct response to President Donald Trump’s executive order boosting the baseload energy source. READ MORE

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Push for permanent E15 sales gains momentum as California joins in (Brownfield Ag News; includes AUDIO)
NCGA: E15 bill stalled by government shutdown, but support remains strong (Brownfield Ag News; includes AUDIO)
Ethanol backers say government delays stall year-round E15 progress (Brownfield Ag News)
API reverses course on E15 gasoline bill, calls for regulatory fixes (Reuters/MSN)
Growers Want Congress to See Benefits of California’s E15 Legislation (National Corn Growers Association)
API Breaks With Biofuels Groups To Oppose Year-Round E15 Authorization (Inside EPA)
U.S. corn faces setback with Big Oil pulling E15 support (Agri-Pulse)
Petroleum group bails on ethanol proposal: The American Petroleum Institute told lawmakers it’s no longer supporting a bill to lift summer restrictions on E15 fuel. (E&E Daily)
American Petroleum Institute withdraws support of E15 legislation (Farm News Media/Michigan Farm News)
Fischer remains committed to E15 bill despite support setback (Brownfield Ag News; includes AUDIO)

Excerpt from Brownfield Ag News: The director of public policy and renewable fuels with the National Corn Growers Association says California’s recent move to allow sales of E15 could be an important step for nationwide access to the fuel.

Matt Ziegler says it’s another example of the product’s broad support.

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Ziegler says he expects any resolution to reopen the government to be clean, or without additional legislation, and says nationwide E15’s best chance for passage will come with other funding resolutions later this year. READ MORE; includes AUDIO

Excerpt from Brownfield Ag News: Ethanol supporters say year-round E15 continues to face a difficult road in Washington D.C.

Chairman of the Nebraska Ethanol Board Jan TenBensel, a farmer from McCook, says the industry is becoming more frustrated.

“The market is hungry for more ethanol in the system. We have the capacity. We have the corn. We just need these simple bureaucratic rules to be fixed.”

U.S. Congressman Randy Feenstra says progress has been halted on a federal solution.

“That’s another thing that really frustrates me,” he said. “We were set up and ready to go to put it on the year-end budget. But right now, we can’t do it because the government is closed.”

TenBensel says the continuing resolution to fund the federal government that’s in front of Congress isn’t a long-term fix and another will be needed. He says that could be the best option left this year.

“And that is the CR that more than likely will have more compromises in it and hopefully E15 can be attached to that continuing resolution and get it through at that time.”

Feenstra tells Brownfield that E15 legislation would immediately drive corn demand.

“That in itself could really help that corn price if we could get some certainty and get year-round E15,” he said. “This is a cost-free amendment to federal law.”

Legislation in both chambers, the Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act, has been supported by ethanol producers, fuel retailers, corn farmers and some oil refiners. READ MORE

Excerpt from Reuters/MSN: The American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday (October 21, 2025) it opposes legislation to expand year-round sales of E15 gasoline, a reversal that underscores deepening tensions between the oil and ethanol industries after a brief period of cooperation.

The influential oil trade group earlier this year had teamed up with farm-state lawmakers and ethanol producers to support higher renewable fuel blending mandates and a December legislative push for year-round E15, in exchange for restrictions on a program that allows smaller refiners to skirt renewable fuel obligations.

...

The API said it does not oppose year-round E15 sales of the blend containing 15% ethanol on their own, but stressed the bill must now be paired with other measures that address new changes in the fuel market.

"Refiners are now navigating shifting federal compliance structures, a patchwork of state mandates, and a biofuels marketplace that is uncertain," API Mike Sommers wrote in a letter to legislative leaders seen by Reuters. "Any legislative consideration of year-round E15 should reflect today’s realities and not those of prior years."

Sommers also said the API wanted more certainty around small refinery exemptions to renewable fuel obligations, saying the waivers disrupt the market and penalize refiners who have already invested in biofuel compliance, according to the letter.

The API pointed to several other issues it wants addressed, including federal reversals of state summertime E10 opt-outs, changes to clean fuel tax credits, and proposed cuts to renewable fuel compliance credits for imports.

Corn and ethanol producers have traditionally pushed for higher renewable fuel blending and year-round E15 sales to expand markets for ethanol, while oil refiners have resisted mandates that increase compliance costs and disrupt refinery operations. READ MORE

Excerpt from Farm News Media/Michigan Farm News: In a letter to U.S. Senate and House leadership, API President and CEO Mike Sommers said the proposal no longer reflected “today's fuel market realities.”

While Sommers said API originally supported the legislative package when introduced, it reflected a set of assumptions about the biofuels and liquid fuels marketplace he claims have changed dramatically and “upended the fuels landscape.”

“Over the past eight months, legislative, regulatory, and market developments have created a substantially different operating environment for refiners and fuel suppliers,” Sommers wrote. “These changes have led API to reassess its position and, ultimately, oppose advancement of the Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act of 2025 in its current form.”

The course reversal by API is a setback to efforts to secure year-round E15 sales. According to a recent economic analysis by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), a 1% increase in the national blend rate equates to 1.36 billion gallons of additional ethanol used domestically, or 486 million bushels of more corn used in ethanol.

“A 5% increase in the national blend rate equates to 6.81 billion gallons of additional ethanol used domestically, or 2.43 billion bushels more corn used in ethanol,” according to NCGA, who had hoped to secure passage of the legislation by year’s end.

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper, responding in a Washington Examiner op-ed, said the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has powered 20 years of lower gas prices, stronger farms, and greater American energy independence.

According to Cooper the ethanol industry now supports more than 300,000 American jobs, contributes $50 billion annually to GDP, and uses over 5.5 billion bushels of corn grown by U.S. farmers each year.

“What’s really at play is competition. Refiners have historically preferred a closed system where petroleum products dominate the market,” Cooper wrote.

“The Renewable Fuel Standard opened that system up, allowing homegrown American fuel producers to compete on a level playing field. That competition benefits consumers, farmers, and the broader U.S. economy.”

But according to API, the legislative proposal was originally introduced in response to eight Midwest states that petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to opt out of the national summertime volatility waiver, effectively requiring their states to be supplied a unique gasoline blend.

Earlier this year, EPA finalized this opt-out request. To comply with the requests by these states, API member companies invested in new infrastructure and refinery operations to produce boutique, regional fuel blends necessary to meet those state-specific mandates.

“After the fuels were refined and delivered to the region, seven states asked to be exempt from their original requests. Mere days before these fuels were required at the terminal, EPA issued emergency waivers that effectively negated the states’ original opt-out requests turning these investments into sunk costs and creating unnecessary financial and operational harm to refiners,” Sommers continued.

Sommers added that approval of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduced significant changes to Section 45Z Clean Fuel Production Tax Credits, which eliminated non-North American feedstocks with lower carbon intensity profiles from qualifying for tax credits.

An EPA proposal to reduce RFS compliance credits for imported fuels and foreign feedstocks by 50% was also cited by Sommers.

“Because there is insufficient domestic feedstock to supply the available U.S. biofuel production capacity, foreign feedstocks will still be needed to ensure that U.S. production facilities can viably operate,” Sommers wrote.

According to API, recent EPA action on Small Refinery Exemption (SRE) petitions and pending action on potential reallocation of volumes from SREs has disrupted established market dynamics by effectively rewarding certain small refineries that have not invested in RFS compliance while punishing those who have.

“Refiners are now navigating shifting federal compliance structures, a patchwork of state mandates, and a biofuels marketplace that is uncertain,” Sommers said. “Any legislative consideration of year-round E15 should reflect today's realities and not those of the past. Congress must take a fresh look at how to promote fuel choice without undermining investment certainty or market stability.”

Sommers urged Congress to take a more holistic approach to E15 within a policy framework that considers the needs and challenges of liquid fuels market participants, including those who have made substantial investments in making the RFS function as intended. READ MORE

Excerpt from Brownfield Ag News: Deb Fischer, a Republican Senator from Nebraska, says the Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act could be attached to a financial assistance package from USDA. “It’s projected that change alone would bring $4 to $6 billion of revenue for the government and that would offset some of that ag assistance cost.”

She tells Brownfield she met with Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin earlier this week and the Administration remains committed to the proposal.

The American Petroleum Institute recently reversed its support of the legislation. Will Hupman, vice president of downstream policy with API, tells Brownfield the trade organization backs year-round E15, but, “We need an E15 legislative proposal that works for all of the folks in the fuel space for those marketing fuels and providing fuels. This bill no longer provides the solution for our members and others in this space.”

He said the fuel sector has changed since the bill was introduced in 2022. He says API has several concerns including the Renewable Fuel Standard proposal, small refinery exemptions, emergency waivers and… “candidly there is not enough feed supply in this country to supply all of U.S biofuel production. We’re still going to need foreign feedstocks and now foreign feedstocks are going to receive half the (tax) credit.”

Fischer says expanding higher blends of ethanol is a win for consumers and farmers and could increase corn demand by more than 2 billion bushels per year. READ MORE; includes AUDIO