Proponents of year-round sales of E15—a gasoline blend containing 15 percent ethanol—market it as a deregulatory move that expands consumer choice. But according to Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Chip Roy (R-TX), it's a Trojan horse for the ethanol lobby to entrench one of the most costly federal mandates in U.S. history: the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
The RFS, they argue, functions as a hidden 30-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline and diesel. Refiners are forced to purchase compliance credits, the cost of which is passed directly to drivers. The Energy Policy Research Foundation estimates the mandate adds roughly 30 cents per gallon, costing Americans about $164 billion over the past decade in higher fuel prices.
“The absurdity is worse,” the lawmakers write. “The final mandated gallons of ethanol cost roughly $770 per gallon to force into the market.” The EPA’s own analysis projects an additional $6.7 billion in societal fuel costs. “This isn’t an energy policy—it’s a corporate bailout.”
Without reforms to the underlying RFS, expanding E15 entrenches this hidden tax, drives up food and fuel prices, slashes vehicle efficiency, threatens refining jobs, and undermines American energy dominance. The lawmakers note that ethanol and corn lobbyists have openly stated their goal is to build infrastructure for even higher blending volumes. Without the RFS, the market would largely stick with E10—only 0.34 percent of blending is truly driven by the mandate beyond voluntary levels.
“If ethanol were truly competitive, its supporters would welcome phasing out the RFS,” Perry and Roy assert. Instead, they demand both expanded E15 sales and preservation of the mandate. The RFS compels consumers to purchase a fuel with 33 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline. “It is the policy equivalent of paying full price for a car that only runs one-third of the time.”
The mandate fails every justification offered. It doesn’t enhance energy security: one-third of the U.S. corn harvest yields only about 10 percent of our gasoline. Replacing gasoline with ethanol would require four to five times current corn production, which is impossible. Full life-cycle emissions analysis shows corn ethanol often matches or exceeds gasoline’s carbon footprint, at an abatement cost of $1,464 per metric ton. It also increases smog, the very reason E15 was originally banned in summer.
The RFS distorts agriculture by diverting corn and soybeans from food and feed to fuel, driving up grocery prices. The EPA itself acknowledges higher food costs and the conversion of forests, wetlands, and grasslands to cropland. Worse, the mandate is crushing independent refiners, who produce roughly half of U.S. fuel. Many now spend more on RFS compliance than on payroll and other operating costs combined—threatening domestic refining capacity while benefiting large integrated majors that can generate their own credits.
E15 also poses practical risks: it isn’t approved for pre-2001 vehicles, motorcycles, boats, or small engines. Drivers also get fewer miles per gallon, making the purported savings imaginary.
The conservative solution is straightforward: allow every fuel blend to compete freely without government mandates or subsidies. Congress should cap or repeal RFS volumes at current production levels and phase them down by 20 percentage points annually over five years until the mandate ends. “A vote for E15 without reform to the RFS is a vote to expand a hidden tax on Americans,” Perry and Roy conclude. “Real reform is a vote for lower fuel prices, competitive markets, and genuine energy dominance.”
As geopolitical tensions drive global shifts in energy policy, the debate over ethanol mandates takes on added urgency. Republicans must decide: government-mandated fuel for the ethanol lobby, or fuel freedom for Americans?
