USDA plan targets foreign blend limits after $4.7 billion ethanol export year
The Agriculture Department rolled out a plan to push American ethanol and other biofuels into foreign markets, going after the regulations abroad that cap blends and restrict fuels made from corn and soybeans. The numbers behind it are real. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the US shipped 2.2 billion gallons of ethanol overseas in 2025, worth $4.7 billion, a record. The plan, called the American Biofuels Trade Outlook, directs federal agencies to press trading partners to raise gasoline blend levels and drop rules against crop-based fuels. For anyone in the corn-ethanol chain, more export demand is a floor under prices, and that floor matters more when domestic gasoline demand is flat.
California E15
California cleared the way for E15 sales. That opens the biggest fuel-retail market in the country to a 15 percent blend, and it gives operators there a lower-cost grade to post at the pump. E15 typically prices under E10, so the upside for a California c-store depends on how fast the supply and pump approvals actually show up.
Year-round E15
Renewable Fuels Association CEO Geoff Cooper says the push for permanent nationwide year-round E15 has made progress on Capitol Hill but still faces hurdles before it becomes law. Summer emergency waivers have kept E15 flowing in the hot months. Cooper says those waivers don't give retailers the certainty they need to expand availability, which leaves a lot of operators waiting on an annual sign-off before they commit to blender pumps.
Marine ethanol
Maersk completed the first US ethanol bunkering of a deep-sea container vessel, and a new report pitched ethanol as a marine fuel. That points to a possible demand outlet beyond the gas pump, though it is early and small next to the export and pump-blend story.
Company items
Aemetis booked $22.4 million from ethanol and renewable natural gas tax credits, a reminder of how much of the margin in this business runs through credit programs rather than the fuel itself. Buffalo Biodiesel picked up a Part 360 permit from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation after spending nearly $3 million on facility upgrades, expanding its used-cooking-oil recycling that feeds renewable diesel and RNG plants.
What to watch
Whether Congress moves permanent year-round E15 before the next summer waiver deadline, since that timing drives whether retailers invest. How quickly California stations actually get E15 to the pump now that the state has cleared it. And whether the USDA export push produces real blend-level changes from trading partners or stays a target document with a name and a press release.