Newsom signs law opening California to E15; Senate bill would extend biodiesel credit through 2029

California just cracked open the one big retail market that ethanol never had. Governor Newsom signed a law that could let stations across the state sell E15, the 15 percent ethanol blend that has been effectively locked out of California for years. Drivers there may see the option once regulators finish their part, so this is not a switch that flips tomorrow.

For anyone selling fuel, the size of the prize is the point. California moves a lot of gasoline, and E15 has been available in most other states while California stayed on E10. If CARB clears the path, that is a large block of new ethanol demand that did not exist last week.

The biodiesel credit

A bipartisan group of US senators introduced a bill to extend the small biodiesel producer tax credit through 2029. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association thanked the effort, which tells you the farm-state producers who lean on that credit have been sweating its expiration.

Small producers run on thin margins, and the per-gallon credit is often the difference between a plant running and a plant idling. Extending it out to 2029 would give those operators something they rarely get, which is a few years of knowing the rule will still be there. It is a bill, not a law, so treat it as intent until it moves.

Ethanol goes to sea

A new US report looked at whether ethanol can work as a marine fuel, and the timing is not an accident. Maersk completed the first US ship-to-ship ethanol bunkering operation, which means the fuel actually went from one vessel into another and powered a ship.

Corn ethanol has a supply problem, or really a demand problem: the domestic gasoline pool can only absorb so much of it. Marine shipping is a market that burns enormous volumes and is under pressure to cut carbon. If ethanol earns a real place there, it gives corn ethanol somewhere to go beyond the blend wall. Early days, one bunkering, but worth tracking.

Buffalo Biodiesel expands

Buffalo Biodiesel said it is entering Tennessee after getting a New York DEC Part 360 permit, and separately moving into the Kilgore, Texas market with plans for new Southeast processing plants. A used-cooking-oil collector and biodiesel maker pushing south is a bet that feedstock and demand are both there.

What to watch

Whether CARB actually writes rules that let California stations sell E15, and how fast. Whether the small biodiesel credit bill gets a vote or dies in committee. And whether Maersk's first ethanol bunkering turns into repeat orders or stays a one-off demo.