22 House Republicans Warn Senate E15 Plan Could Cut Fuel Output

Twenty-two House Republicans have told Speaker Mike Johnson that the E15 language in the Senate farm bill would "create perverse financial incentives to produce less fuel" while domestic refining capacity stays constrained. The letter, led by Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger of Texas, lands as House and Senate negotiators race to close a final farm bill before the current session ends on January 3.

What does the letter object to?

Pfluger and 21 other GOP members, including Reps. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma and Monica De La Cruz and Michael McCaul of Texas, single out the Senate bill's provision linking permanent small refinery exemptions to historical output. The measure, they argue, would discourage oil facilities from expanding refining capacity beyond the 75,000-barrel-a-day threshold because growth would "risk permanent disqualification from future SREs" — the small refinery exemptions (waivers that relieve refiners from biofuel-blending mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard).

The House members also fault the provision's cost-shifting mechanics. It would force "non-exempt refineries to shoulder the compliance costs of their exempted competitors via reallocation," the letter states, producing "additional distortions in fuel markets and higher regulatory burdens, all at the expense of consumers who bear most of these costs at the pump." For corn growers, the calculation is inverted: E15 access expands demand, while refiners read the same language as a new compliance cost.

Where does the ethanol fight stand?

Year-round voluntary sales of E15 nationwide remain the corn-based ethanol industry's top legislative goal for this year. The effort has repeatedly collapsed under oil-sector opposition. The Senate came close in January, but a deal fell apart after independent refiners objected to a provision overhauling how energy firms request federal blending waivers. The SRE fight has split petroleum itself, pitting large refiners against smaller ones.

The House passed a stand-alone E15 bill in May after the topic proved too heated to include in the chamber's April farm bill. That measure drew support from the American Petroleum Institute, which represents big refiners, but smaller refineries opposed its SRE treatment. Both camps now object to the E15 language in the farm bill the Senate Agriculture Committee approved last month — an unusual point of convergence that signals how the Senate's waiver language, not E15 itself, has become the sticking point.

The lawmakers leave room for a deal. "We recognize that there are differing views on what reforms should be made to the Renewable Fuel Program and small refinery exemptions, but we all agree that any changes to this policy should encourage — not discourage — American fuel production," they write. "Year-round E15 and meaningful RFS reforms need not be mutually exclusive, and Congress should work toward a solution that advances both objectives." Their condition: E15 expansion must pair with RFS changes that "avoid shifting additional compliance costs onto other refiners."

What happens next?

Lawmakers return to Capitol Hill on November 9 from an extended recess, leaving roughly eight weeks before the January 3 deadline. Negotiators are also weighing a plan under which some states would begin footing part of the bill for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits; agreement there would open the door to talks on other matters, including E15.

The Republican Study Committee, founded in 1973, is a conservative caucus of House Republicans focused on limited government. Its intervention signals that any Senate farm bill containing the current SRE language would face resistance from a sizable bloc of oil-state Republicans on the House floor — pressure that will shape the final compromise ethanol producers and refiners see in December.