The Ethanol Lobby Vastly Outspent the Oil Lobby. The Oil Lobby Is Winning Out.

The ethanol industry spent millions in 2025 lobbying Congress for a higher year-round ethanol blend in gasoline, only to watch their efforts rapidly collapse this week.

Domestic oil refiners, despite their relatively meager lobbying spend by comparison, won the day Thursday when the House’s appropriations package moved forward without language that would remove limits on when E15, a type of gasoline that contains more ethanol than the standard E10, can be sold.

“Corn growers are disgusted, disappointed and disillusioned that after spending years of calling for passage of E15, Congress has again punted,” National Corn Growers Association President Jed Bower said in a statement. “Congress is choosing to leave America’s 500,000 corn farmers behind in favor of a handful of refineries.”

E15 sales are restricted from June to mid-September because of air quality statutes. Shifting sales to year-round would significantly increase demand for corn. U.S. corn farmers are experiencing a significant oversupply that has depressed prices and left farmers with enormous stockpiles.

Lobbying disclosures reviewed by NOTUS showed that the ethanol industry spent big ahead of the opportunity for lawmakers on Capitol Hill to remove the restriction. The industry is no stranger to huge lobbying spends and often achieves its goals after big campaigns. Most recently, corn growers secured an extension to a “clean fuel” tax credit, overcoming opposition from both conservative groups and clean energy advocates.

This week’s outcome is an unusual loss by comparison.

The Bayer Corporation spent more than $9 million during 2025 on lobbying the federal government, including on “legislative and administrative action related to biofuels, including ethanol,” according to the company’s lobbying disclosure forms.

Also among the companies that spent the most money on lobbying on year-round E15 were Koch Companies’ lobbying arm, which spent more than $9 million in 2025, and ethanol producer Archer Daniels Midland, which spent almost $7 million last year.

The American Petroleum Institute, Growth Energy, Renewable Fuels Association and National Association of Convenience Stores, all of which sent a letter to President Donald Trump last month calling on the administration to support year-round E15 legislation, each spent between tens of thousands of dollars to more than $1 million last year on lobbying the federal government. So did agricultural groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the American Soybean Association.

Oil refineries, meanwhile, spent comparatively meager amounts.

Phillips 66, a midsized oil refining company based in Texas, spent almost $3.8 million in 2025 on lobbying Congress, the White House and multiple federal agencies, including on draft legislation about E15. But their spending on ethanol lobbying specifically was limited to just the fourth quarter of 2025.

PBF Energy, another petroleum refining company, “lobbied in opposition to allowing E15 year-round without corresponding relief from compliance costs for merchant refineries,” according to its disclosures. The company spent $120,000 total on lobbying during 2025, including on foreign policy issues.

Phillips 66 and PBF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, an industry group that has decried the push for year-round E15, spent more than $2 million on lobbying efforts, including on ethanol. The organization only reported lobbying during the second and third quarters of 2025.

The decision to leave year-round E15 out of the appropriations package infuriated a coalition of Midwestern lawmakers.

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks said “Iowa farmers needed year‑round E15 yesterday”

after the provision was stripped out.

Republican lawmakers struck a deal Thursday with House leadership to create a task force to look into possibly instituting year-round E15 sales in the future. But that didn’t satisfy ethanol interests.

The Renewable Fuels Association said in a statement Thursday that the House’s decision to strip out the provision was “unfathomable” and called the creation of the task force “more foot-dragging and more debate.”

Other lawmakers from Texas and other oil-refining states along the Gulf Coast cheered the decision. That coalition of Congress members sent a letter to House Republican leaders last year, arguing that year-round E15 “would further disadvantage the U.S. refining sector.”