Year-round E15 gains Senate momentum as Thune names it a priority

Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says the fight to sell E15 all year has more support behind it now than at any point in the decade-plus it has been argued. She made the comments Tuesday at the Iowa State Fair. A compromise bill already cleared the House in May with bipartisan votes, and the action moves to the Senate, where Leader John Thune has flagged the measure as a priority.

For jobbers and c-store operators, this is the item that changes what you can pump. E15 already sells at a discount to E10 through the summer, but the current setup forces retailers in much of the country to pull the higher blend or seek a waiver during the June-to-September ozone window. A permanent fix would take that annual guessing game off the table and let stations that invested in blender pumps run the product twelve months a year.

The path is the catch. Skor's group wants the provision attached to the Senate farm bill or some other package expected to move in 2026. Farm bills slip. Riders get stripped. The House vote shows the votes may be there, and Thune's backing matters in a chamber he runs, but a floor vehicle that actually passes is not yet on the calendar.

The Peoria settlement

An ethanol refinery on the Illinois River near Peoria has been ordered to fund wetland and floodplain restoration at the Emiquon refuge, closing an eight-year fight over water discharges alleged to run as much as 40 degrees hotter than the plant's permit allowed. Prairie Rivers Network and the Sierra Club filed the notice of intent to sue over repeated permit violations. The Illinois Attorney General, at the request of the state EPA, brought the lawsuit in early 2018.

"Rivers can't speak in court, so we speak for them," said Robert Hirschfeld, Prairie Rivers Network's water policy director. For operators, the read is on compliance cost. Thermal discharge limits at biofuel plants are enforceable, and a plant that ignores them can end up paying for habitat repair years later.

Sand's listening tour

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand toured Lincolnway Energy in Nevada, Iowa on Tuesday and did more listening than talking during a briefing with ethanol industry members. The biorefinery came online in 2006. The stop was part of Sand's 100 Town Hall Tour. No policy commitments came out of it, but a candidate courting the ethanol vote in Iowa shows the industry can still swing votes heading into 2026.

What to watch

Whether E15 finds a moving legislative vehicle in the Senate, and whether Thune's priority label turns into floor time. If the farm bill stalls, backers will need another package that actually passes.