ORLANDO, Fla. (DTN) -- A Feb. 25, 2026, deadline has come and gone for a special congressional committee to move new year-round E15 legislation to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, as biofuels industry officials at the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, Florida, stepped up pressure on lawmakers on Wednesday to get it done.

The E15 Rural Energy Council made up of members of Congress began meeting earlier this month to come up with a legislative fix, and although the deadline has passed, an official with the American Petroleum Institute said the council is working.

So far, little information has come out about the process.

"I do expect we're going to see a product soon," said Will Hupman, vice president of downstream policy for the American Petroleum Institute.

"I think we may see something as soon as this week, I know something's being drafted right now. The goalposts have moved on this a lot as they sort of talk with various stakeholders and they're trying to satisfy everyone."

Considering the council is working toward a consensus to include petroleum interests and small-refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard, Hupman said the council made up of 20 members of Congress is faced with a difficult task.

"And I think sort of the real question here, if you keep in mind that there's a one-vote margin in the House or two-vote margin in the House is, are we seeking something that has unanimous support or are we seeking something that has consensus support?" he said during a panel discussion.

"I think that's an important distinction because I don't think unanimous support can't exist and will never exist."

Geoff Cooper, CEO and president of the Renewable Fuels Association, said during a state of the industry speech the lack of year-round E15 is holding back both the biofuels and agriculture industries.

Cooper called on members of Congress to act swiftly, stressing that year-round E15 would lower fuel costs, strengthen U.S. energy security and provide economic relief to farmers.

He said a "small handful" of midsized refining companies are holding up progress on E15 and reform of the RFS's small-refinery exemption program and lawmakers are finding out "that there is simply no way to appease midsized refiners who continue to game the RFS system with SREs. Those refiners either want to maintain the status quo, or they want to blow up the RFS entirely -- neither of those options is acceptable to the majority of liquid fuel and agriculture stakeholders."

The urgency to approve year-round E15 comes on the heels of a 2025 that saw U.S. ethanol producers manufacture a record 16.4 billion gallons of renewable fuel.

In addition, domestic consumption reached 14.3 billion gallons -- the highest level in six years -- while exports surged to an all-time high of 2.2 billion gallons, representing one out of every eight gallons produced, Cooper said.

There has been some discussion in recent months that if Congress decides not to act on E15 legislation, more states will seek special Clean Air Act waivers to be allowed to sell E15 year-round in their states.

So far Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin have received waivers, while Kansas may be next in line.

On Tuesday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said if Congress does not pass E15 legislation, she may take the same action.

LEGISLATIVE HOPES

Troy Bredenkamp, senior vice president of government and public affairs for the Renewable Fuels Association, said the hope of the industry is to see an E15 bill attached to must-pass legislation, even after that approach failed in December 2024 when E15 was yanked out of an appropriations bill at the last minute.

"I can tell you from our perspective, we do not want to see a floor vote," Bredenkamp said.

"I mean, we all know E15 was never necessarily meant to be a standalone package. This was always meant to be a drop in onto a must-pass piece of legislation. We've never done a whip count on an entire U.S. House of Representatives. It's a very risky strategy, but if that's the road we have to go down, that's the road we will go down."

Looking at the legislative calendar for the current session, Bredenkamp said the chances to attach E15 to another must-pass bill seem slim.

"I don't see any new vehicles coming anytime soon," he said.

VIABILITY OF SUMMER WAIVERS

Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Trump administration is likely to continue to grant temporary waivers of summertime E15 bans, that isn't a long-term solution.

"If we don't get legislation done, we're going to see some of the same exact dynamics as last year, right?" he said.

"That begins to raise all of these problems where some of our folks may get fed up with certain things. We've been surviving on summertime E15 on emergency waivers for what, five years now? At some point, some EPA is going to say, 'how is it an emergency every single year?' I mean, look, we've written them letters every year and said, it's an emergency. You've got to waive it so we can keep selling it. Sometime that becomes untenable."

RFS PROPOSAL TO OMB

The ethanol industry received good news on Wednesday, as EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Aaron Szabo announced during the conference that the final RFS volumes rule has been sent to the Office of Management and Budget for review.

He said the agency expects the final rule to be released by the end of March.

Cooper expressed optimism in his speech about the RFS volumes for 2026 and 2027. The rule includes the highest-ever renewable volume targets and maintains the 15-billion-gallon conventional biofuel requirement. The industry continues to hold out hope the EPA will fully reallocate all biofuels gallons lost to small-refinery exemptions.

Hupman said although the council's work on E15 continues to be "opaque," it is expected that a final bill could be like the "Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act" drafted by the ethanol industry.

"In terms of the overall impact, again, without seeing it, this is some expectation, but my expectations are that the council is going to land in a pretty similar place to our original design," Hupman said.

"Our sort of prognosis is that this council's gonna put together a product, it's gonna be legislation, they're gonna put it on the speaker's desk and say either all of us or most of us have signed off on this, but we don't yet know what happens."

Read more on DTN:

"E15 Push Hits Critical Stage," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com.

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