WASHINGTON (DTN) -- Year-round E15 fuel supporters say they are ready to compromise, but Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a long-standing champion of permanent-E15 legislation, says the Senate may run out of time.

The year-round sales of E15 fuel have remained in Senate Majority Leader John Thune's hands as lawmakers navigate competing legislative deadlines and the November election.

Last week, commodity and ethanol groups flooded Capitol Hill, united around their "laser-focused" priorities on ethanol but prepared to negotiate.

But Sen. Grassley said on Tuesday: "There's not a lot of opportunities left. I'm still hearing leadership of the Senate say it can be a separate bill on the floor of the United States Senate, but I don't see how we have time."

Current reporting indicates a compromise could be reached between the House-passed version of the E15 bill and the Fischer-Capito bill introduced in the Senate in February 2025 by Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.

Grassley said he has not yet seen legislative text. "I'm not so sure that compromise is as important, as once we have a compromise, how are you going to get the thing through the United States Senate?" he said.

IN THE SENATE'S HANDS

Jan tenBensel, a National Corn Growers Association board member and Nebraska farmer, told DTN, "Our official push is for the House version of the E15 year-round legislation that we've worked with the American Petroleum Institute to develop." But if a clean E15 bill were pushed through the Senate, he said, they "certainly would celebrate that."

The key differences between the bills center on their potential impact on soybean demand and changes to small-refinery exemptions under the Renewable Fuel Standard, which determines how much renewable fuel refiners must blend into the nation's fuel supply.

Under an SRE, a qualifying small refinery can receive relief from some of its RFS blending obligations. Ethanol and corn groups argue that broad use of SREs reduces demand for renewable fuels such as ethanol and undermines the RFS, while refiners contend that exemptions are necessary to protect smaller facilities from disproportionate compliance costs.

NCGA stands in support of RFS reform because of the coalition built with oil, specifically the American Petroleum Institute.

Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, said he was a lead negotiator in discussions with the American Petroleum Institute and believed it represented a sound compromise.

But he said one group has not been willing to compromise: Small Refineries of America.

"They really haven't been willing to make concessions or give anything," Cooper said. "Everyone else involved in these conversations has been willing to compromise and give up some things in order to find, you know, some agreement."

Their message, he said, has been that they want to keep the status quo for the small-refinery exemption program. "They do not want to reform or change anything about the way the exemption program currently works today," Cooper said.

But the refiners were originally left out of negotiations and talks when the legislation moved through the House, leading refiners to lobby their oil-state senators to oppose changes to the RFS.

"The ethanol industry's 'targeted SRE reform' could add as much as $100 million in costs to dozens of small refineries across the US," the Small Refineries of America has previously stated on social platform X.

DTN contacted the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers for further comment.

Any E15 compromise text between negotiation blocs has yet to be seen. Senators with oil-refining interests, and AFPM members, face the most pressure.

TenBensel told DTN: "That's a decision that the individual legislator needs to wrestle with on their own. Are we going to support ... a few 100 jobs from a foreign entity, or are we going to worry about the thousands and thousands of farmers in your district?"

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as of 2026, there are 128 oil refineries in America. Some foreign-based multinational corporations own significant equity stakes in several U.S.-based refineries, which tenBensel referenced.

But Cooper said: "Those companies right now are seeing record margins. The so-called crack spread is the highest it's ever been, and so they are very well capitalized and very well-funded right now. I think we're seeing that reflected in their political efforts."

The "crack spread" is a term used to describe the price difference between crude oil and gasoline and diesel.

The American Soybean Association supports E15 but opposes reforms to small-refinery exemptions, said Scott Metzger, its farmer president from Ohio. "We supported it 'til they started adding amendments to it, which moved the SREs around, and that's what we're not in favor of."

The group is actively lobbying Congress to find a solution without changing SRE policy, citing the highly controversial Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute report that found automatic small-refinery exemptions could weaken soybean demand and prices, even as ethanol boosts corn prices.

"We don't want to see the soybean side hurt with it," Metzger said.

The FAPRI report indicates that under a scenario with 900 million gallons of SREs, Decatur soybean oil prices fall as much as 11.7 cents per pound below baseline by 2035-36, while farm soybean prices drop as much as 43 cents per bushel.

Soybean oil is a key biodiesel and renewable diesel feedstock.

Corn prices, meanwhile, rise only modestly, increasing 3 cents to 14 cents per bushel above baseline, depending on the scenario.

Metzger reiterated, "At the end of the day, you're at a net negative for the farm."

Outgoing Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, who won the NCGA's President's Award at Corn Congress, said during the Congress last week: "The oil industry in some areas gave us a lot of headache. In other areas, they're our friends. We got to continue to work with them, whether we like it or not."

Corn farmers argue that holding up E15 is not a part of the president's energy plan.

"Ethanol is there to provide American jobs, American energy, octane to use American products," tenBensel said.

If E15 is placed in a stand-alone bill, it could be subject to amendments, like the E15 debate in the House, potentially requiring five or six days of debate, Grassley told reporters on Tuesday.

"You can't spend five days on something like E15," Grassley said.

The movement of RFS standards and SRE exemptions is confusing for everyone in the industry, tenBensel told DTN.

"Steady is good," he said.

Jake Zajkowski can be reached at jake.zajkowski@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @jzajkow

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