Yearslong ethanol policy standoff could cost Illinois drivers at the pump yet again

SPRINGFIELD — With gas prices surging to a national average of just under $4 per gallon due to the U.S. bombing of Iran, a yearslong policy standoff over ethanol-blended fuel threatened to push prices even higher in Illinois for a second straight year.

At issue is the use of E15 gasoline — a blend of 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline that’s cheaper than regular fuel and increases demand for corn. But federal rules have blocked its use during the summer in recent years because the warmer months create conditions where vapors from ethanol-infused gasoline could contribute to unhealthy levels of smog.

The Trump administration on Wednesday announce that it will temporarily lift the restrictions on E15 sales during the summer amid pressure surrounding rising costs due to the conflict in Iran, according to a news release. It will take effect May 1, and is expected to be continued in 20-day increments throughout the summer.

Some still want a more permanent solution.

The sale of ethanol, which is made from corn, began to get more complicated in 2022 when eight Midwestern states — Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Minnesota — surrendered a federal waiver that allowed the usage of E10 (10% ethanol) during the summer months. The governors framed their petition as a state-level solution, but industry advocates said the broader goal was to pressure Congress into a nationwide permanent fix for E15 fuel use.

The federal government reacted by issuing summer emergency waivers from 2022-24, temporarily lifting Environmental Protection Agency restrictions that would otherwise bar retailers from selling E15 fuel during the summer.

Delays in 2025

However, during the first months of the Trump administration in early 2025, there was a delay in issuing the emergency waiver. It took until late April, resulting in higher prices for a longer period because retailers had already bought the more-expensive product.

The feds issued this year’s waiver for May 1. In hopes of avoiding a repeat of 2025, Gov. JB Pritzker joined six of his counterparts earlier this month in a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin urging an emergency waiver announcement by March 15, though it came 10 days later.

The letter, which was signed by Pritzker as well as the governors of Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota, also requested that any E15 waiver that is provided includes an identical one for E10 — the most common fuel distributed in the U.S. — to ensure fuel standards stay the same across the board.

“Given that Congress has yet to deliver regulatory relief to expedite nationwide, year-round E15 sales, we join with many others to call on the EPA to provide a nationwide emergency waiver for E15 during the coming months to ensure ample, low-cost fuel options for consumers,” the letter said.

When the EPA granted last year’s emergency waiver on April 28, Zeldin cited President Donald Trump’s commitment to lower energy costs and to farmers who grow the corn for ethanol.

“In my confirmation hearing, I pledged to establish certainty when it came to the sale of E15 year-round,’’ Zeldin said in a news release.

The EPA did not respond to questions sent by Capitol News Illinois about a more permanent solution.

Illinois retailers’ uncertainty

Nate Harris, CEO of the Illinois Fuel and Retail Association, which represents over 500 members in the state’s gas station and convenience store industry, said he remains concerned, recalling what happened a year ago.

“The problem with waiting until late April is that my members that have already purchased this more-expensive product are going to be stuck holding it,” Harris said. “The industry last year lost tens of millions of dollars and will likely do so again, which is unnecessary because the ability to just opt back into the waiver exists.”

In addition to the financial losses incurred by retailers, consumers temporarily dealt with higher prices — as much as 30 cents per gallon more, according to Harris.

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Harris said he hoped that because of global oil market volatility due to the war in Iran, there would be more urgency to get an emergency waiver announced sooner in 2026 than 2025, a sentiment echoed in the letter sent by Pritzker and the other governors to the EPA.

An earlier announcement could have significantly blunted the logistical damage for retailers who must navigate a complicated system to secure their products in advance but may not entirely eliminate it.

Harris and others would like to see a permanent fix to the problem, and to them the easiest solution would be for Illinois to opt back into the original E10 waiver.

A spokesperson for Pritzker’s office could not be reached to ask whether the governor intends to ask that the state opt back into the E10 waiver.

“Every year waiting on emergency waivers from the federal government is no way to generate stability and certainty for businesses,” said Harris. “All the state needs to do is opt back into the regular waivers and we can avoid all those headaches from last year.”

Corn growers have concerns

Fuel retailers are not the only group of people pushing for a decision on E15. Illinois corn and ethanol producers warn that the uncertainty behind what will happen each summer goes beyond the gas pump. It also hits their pocketbooks.

“One in every four to five bushels of grain corn raised in Illinois is going into biofuels, and this is creating jobs and tax dollars,” said Illinois State Rep. Charles Meier, R-Okawville. “So by (not selling E15), it is going to hurt the Illinois economy.”

He and other Illinois lawmakers have a dual interest in the issue — they are concerned about what their constituents will be paying for fuel, and they want to help the corn farmers who have a financial interest in the success of ethanol.

Meier, who represents a rural district in southwestern Illinois, also took aim at the waiver process itself. “We need a permanent fix to this,” Meier said. “Just looking at it every summer and trying to move forward with emergency rules shouldn’t be what we’re doing.”

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Had the federal government not issued the waiver, the impact would have differed across every part of Illinois. According to Harris, the Chicago and St. Louis metro areas already use a different ethanol blend during the summer due to air quality requirements in larger and more urban areas. The cost of producing the specific blend wouldn’t rise, but the cost of getting it to consumers would because of how it would compete for space in the same pipeline network.

Meanwhile, downstate markets such as Peoria, Champaign and other communities across southern Illinois outside the Metro East region would face a double hit: the higher transportation and production costs for the specialty blend, according to Harris.

An Illinois Department of Agriculture news release calling for a quick decision on the waiver quotes several Democratic members of Congress who want a permanent federal solution. Among them was Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Moline, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee and represents rural communities stretching from Rockford to Decatur.

Earlier in March, Sorensen had attempted to amend the Farm Bill currently under consideration by the Agriculture Committee in Congress to include language enabling the year-round sale of E15. But the amendment was blocked over questions of jurisdiction.

Sorensen, in a news release, said he hopes Congress eventually will act.

“We need certainty for farmers and lower prices at the gas pump,’’ he said.

George Alexandrakis is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois. 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.