Americans for Tax opposes Section 12501 of the Agricultural Act of 2026 which would make the Renewable Fuel Standard permanent and authorize year-round E15, a gasoline blend that contains up to 15 percent ethanol.
This provision would lead to higher fuel costs for American consumers and increase the ethanol industry’s dependency on government by extending the failed RFS program’s mandates and subsidies.
ATR has long urged Congress to fully repeal the RFS program. The RFS is both a wasteful climate initiative and a massive subsidy for biofuel producers, notably ethanol from corn.
If Congress wants to permit the year-round sale of E15 fuel it should first repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard mandate altogether and allow E15 to compete in a free market without federal mandates and taxpayer subsidies.
Expanding the RFS Raises Fuel Costs, Worsens Fuel Economy for Drivers
As the Congressional Budget Office noted in May:
“Because ethanol has a lower energy content than gasoline, higher ethanol blending would reduce fuel economy and increase gasoline consumption, thus increasing revenues from the federal excise tax on gasoline.”
As Benajmin Zycher, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, further points out:
“The special interests profiting massively from the renewable fuels requirements claim that the new approval for summer E15 sales will save fuel consumers up to 30 cents per gallon, or about 7 percent of the national average price of about $4.10. That is balderdash. Ethanol has about 33 percent less energy content than gasoline. Accordingly, fuel economy per gallon is about 1.74 percent lower for E15 relative to E10. Market forces, therefore, will establish an equilibrium in which E15 will sell for about 7 cents per gallon less than E10.”
Congress should not be in the business of subsidizing a worse fuel economy for drivers in an attempt to trick consumers with fake savings at the pump.
Americans for Tax Reform urges Congress to remove Section 12501 from the Agricultural Act of 2026.
