House misses its own deadline for bill to expand ethanol sales
Source: Roll Call
Posted February 26, 2026 at 6:07am
House Republicans blew past a deadline to release legislation that would allow the year-round sale of E15 gasoline last week, but at least one member of a panel to resolve the issue says he hopes a final deal will soon emerge. The E15 Rural Domestic Energy Council, established last month to satisfy lawmakers threatening to vote against appropriations bills, missed its Feb. 15 deadline to release legislation allowing the year-round sale of E15, or gasoline containing up to 15 percent ethanol.
The panel’s lapse meant the House missed a deadline to vote on the legislation Wednesday. Lawmakers favoring E15 met with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Wednesday but there’s no indication when legislation could emerge or a floor vote take place.
“We’ve got draft language that I’m going to go through and I think people are going to be happy,” said Rep Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., a member of the E15 panel. “Balancing our bean farmers, our corn farmers, the biomass producers and refineries, large, small, medium, it’s difficult.”
One major issue is the treatment of economic hardship exemptions for small refineries. The refiners say they face hardships from ethanol mandates, but ethanol supporters say the EPA grants too many exemptions to refiners who don’t need them. That issue pits lawmakers from oil-producing states against those from corn-producing states, regardless of party. Republican Reps. Randy Feenstra of Iowa and Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma are co-chairs of the council.
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2026/02/26/house-misses-its-own-deadline-for-bill-to-expand-ethanol-sales/
But 45 wants everybody "rollin' coal".
