SALEM, Ohio — A provision that would have allowed nationwide, year-round sales of ethanol-blended E15 gasoline was stripped from the latest federal funding bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, dealing a blow to corn growers who say they might unravel without the support from the measure.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has historically prohibited the sale of E15 biofuel from June 1 to Sept. 15 over concerns that its use during the summer driving season could lead to increased smog pollution. But the agency has made exceptions at the pump every year since 2018 via the issuance of emergency waivers, including as recently as last year when the EPA permitted year-round sales in eight Midwestern states, including Ohio. Industry advocates and farmers, meanwhile, have sought a permanent, legislative solution to settle the matter once and for all.
This time around, instead of setting a long-awaited E15 policy, Congress balked and announced the creation of a new “Rural Domestic Energy Council,” which will develop potential legislative proposals on E15 and other renewable fuels issues that could be considered for future advancement into law.
For farmers, it amounts to little more than kicking the can down the road. Some say it feels like playing a game they can’t win after being dealt another lousy hand.
“We are coming off a couple of tough years as corn growers in the state,” said Tyler Drewes, a farmer in Wood County, Ohio, and president of the Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association, in an interview with Farm and Dairy. “2025 was hard up in my neck of the woods with drought conditions.”
With low average yields and depressed prices cutting into his bottom line, Drewes had been counting on the inclusion of year-round E15 in the final Fiscal Year 2026 government funding package that seemed all but inevitable to pass this week with enough bipartisan support before a looming Jan. 30 deadline.
He believes the policy will help strengthen commodity prices and improve his chances of returning to profitability next year.
Its sudden ejection from the spending bill, despite months of legislative work and bipartisan cooperation to move such a policy across the finish line, has left him discouraged.
“Without this E-15 getting passed and kind of getting taken away for the foreseeable future, it feels like it just makes us struggle that much harder. Really wondering if we’re going to be around and to be a sustainable farm in one to five years from now,” he said.
Pressure mounts
As farmers continue to feel the strain of a market that’s been operating inside a pressure cooker, some see Congress’s recent inaction as a catalyst accelerating their trajectory toward insolvency. Eric Tipton, vice president of OCWGA and a Fayette County farmer, said that without a deal, corn growers are left to decide between bad choices or worse ones.
“Farmers are starting to eat into some of their working capital and starting to rely heavily on lines of credit, and that’s a really scary place to be,” he said.
Passage of an E15 policy, Tipton said, could strengthen corn markets fast and stabilize vulnerable farm finances. Anything short of that, he added, is a nonstarter.
“Failure would result in bankruptcies,” Tipton said. “We cannot survive on negative profit levels for much longer.”
Ohio Corn & Wheat Executive Director Tadd Nicholson said the frustration among growers is compounded by the fact that year-round E15 enjoys broad support and carries no cost to taxpayers. A bipartisan group of Ohio lawmakers, including U.S. Reps. Shontel Brown, Mike Carey, Greg Landsman, Max Miller and Dave Taylor, publicly backed the measure, but it ultimately failed to survive negotiations led by House leadership. Nicholson lays blame at the feet of House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Congressional leaders.
“What’s the problem? Why can’t you fix this?” Nicholson said, questioning why a policy supported by a broad coalition of farmers, ethanol producers, fuel retailers and much of the petroleum industry could not advance. “It seems pretty easy. It doesn’t cost a thing, and it’s a no-brainer.”
Nicholson noted this marks the second time in two years the policy appeared poised for passage, only to be stripped out at the last moment. The whiplash has left growers, he said, feeling as though the issue has simply been sidelined once more at the behest of a few mid-sized oil refiners, some of which are foreign-owned and lobbied in opposition to year-round E15.
“Why is it that our Republican leadership in the House and Senate would pick foreign-owned refiners over US farmers? That’s frustrating for us. That’s not something that’s acceptable, not something we’re going to take laying down,” he said.
Dire conditions
Most of Ohio’s ethanol capacity was built in the late 2000s after the federal Renewable Fuel Standard created stronger incentives for biofuel production. Ohio ethanol production jumped sharply after plants went online around 2008, and for a while, they never looked back. The state’s seven ethanol plants have a combined production capacity of about 770 million gallons per year. But today, many of those same plants are operating in a far more fragile farm economy, one that industry leaders warn is showing signs of deeper structural stress extending well beyond Ohio.
In a Jan. 21 statement, American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall pointed to new analysis showing that the economic crisis in farm country is likely to persist into 2026 without additional congressional action. He noted that lawmakers from both parties have acknowledged the need for more support, including expanded bridge assistance for farmers and approval of year-round E15, which he described as posing broad benefits. But neither priority made it into the House’s proposed funding package, a move Duvall said caught farm groups off guard after months of negotiations.
“The target for months has been to include both priorities in the government funding package. So, it was a shock to see bill text proposed by the House that includes neither,” he said in a statement.
The alarm bells are not limited to corn country. Soybean growers, many of whom operate alongside corn farmers in Ohio and across the Midwest, say they are staring down a similar cliff as they head into the 2026 planting season.
In a Jan. 21 statement, the American Soybean Association underscored what it called “dire economic conditions” for soybean farmers — according to ASA calculations, growers are still facing 64% in uncovered losses, leaving many operations exposed as they plan for another season — and urged Congress to step in with additional support while the industry waits for long-promised biofuel policy action to materialize.
On Jan. 24, key Democratic support for funding the government, which would have set aside $64.4 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, eroded following the second killing of a Minneapolis resident by ICE officers there.
The development raised the prospect of a partial shutdown if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement before the end of the month, according to the New York Times. For farmers heading into the 2026 growing season with little financial cushion left, another pause in USDA payments, stalled loan approvals, frozen conservation or disaster assistance program payouts and discontinued federal support could deepen their ongoing strain and turn a difficult year into an unimaginable one.
“There will be individuals and families who can’t weather this storm because it’s been going on for so long,” Drewes said.
