Thune says small-refinery exemptions block the Senate path to year-round E15

Year-round E15 hit a wall in the Senate, and Majority Leader John Thune named it: small refineries. Thune said the bill to let 15 percent ethanol blends sell all summer faces a hurdle from small oil refiners, the same group that has spent years asking EPA for hardship exemptions from their Renewable Fuel Standard blending duties. For c-store operators who added E15 pumps on the promise of a permanent summer market, that means the patchwork stays. Right now year-round E15 runs on a set of state-level and emergency waivers, not federal law.

The mechanics are simple enough. E15 gets blocked in summer over a volatility rule, so retailers who invested in the blend never know from one year to the next whether they can sell it in June, July and August. A clean federal fix would settle that. The small-refinery fight is over who has to buy RINs to meet the RFS, and those refiners don't want more ethanol demand written into law. So the two questions are tangled together, and Thune is signaling the ethanol side may have to give something to move the bill.

Guatemala's E10

Guatemala launched a nationwide E10 mandate, blending 10 percent ethanol into its gasoline. For a US jobber this matters for one reason: it opens a new export outlet for US corn ethanol. Guatemala doesn't produce much of its own, and the nearest large supplier is the US Gulf. More export demand tightens the domestic balance, which supports ethanol margins and, through the crush, corn. It's a small market, but every gallon of committed offshore demand helps drain the surplus that has been sitting on RIN values.

Catalyst-free biodiesel

Inventure and CPM|Crown said they're partnering on a catalyst-free biodiesel process. The pitch is a production method that skips the catalyst step, which could cut cost and simplify feedstock handling for biodiesel plants. It's early, and there's no throughput or cost number attached yet, so treat it as a technology to track rather than a change to supply this year.

Iowa politics

Ethanol backers in Iowa took their concerns to state Auditor Rob Sand, and the Iowa Corn 350 race put the industry's demand pitch in front of a big crowd. Both are reminders that the ethanol lobby is working the political side hard while the E15 fight plays out in Washington.

What to watch

Whether Thune can find a compromise that gets small refiners to stand down, or whether year-round E15 dies again and retailers go into next summer on waivers. Watch RIN prices for how the market reads the odds, and watch for any US ethanol export bookings to Guatemala.