Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to grant a partial waiver from 2027 renewable fuel blending obligations, arguing the mandate is pushing up what drivers pay at the pump. The two governors sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin asking for relief they describe as narrow and short-term rather than a permanent rollback.
According to Energy.AgWired.com, the governors described the requested waiver as targeted, prospective and temporary, and said it would not interfere with ethanol blending that already makes economic sense. Ivey and Landry contend that compliance costs tied to the Renewable Fuel Standard are contributing to higher fuel prices, a claim they laid out in their letter to Zeldin, as reported by Reuters. The Renewable Fuel Standard requires fuels sold in the United States to contain a minimum volume of blended renewable fuel, and EPA had set its most aggressive blending requirements yet for 2026 and 2027, per the same Reuters account.
Reports differ on exactly who has signed onto the push. Energy.AgWired.com describes the effort as a two-state petition from Louisiana and Alabama, while WBRZ reports that Landry was joined by the governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas in asking EPA to waive the 2027 volume requirements. WBRZ also reports that the coalition of governors says the standard imposes a cost on every gallon of gas and diesel sold nationwide.
Governors Point to Global Oil Markets and Federal Relief Efforts
Ivey and Landry's letter, sent to Zeldin the day before the petition became public, argues the Renewable Fuel Standard causes severe economic harm by raising fuel prices, the same Reuters report states. The governors also said that White House actions and state-level measures had already eased some of the pressure on fuel prices but that more was needed.
Per WBRZ's report, Landry and Ivey attributed rising gasoline prices, including record-high diesel prices, to interruptions in global oil supplies stemming from wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Landry pointed to a trio of federal responses he said had helped: deferring the federal excise tax on dyed diesel, pressuring European nations to release 100 million barrels from their reserves, and rejecting a proposed export ban, according to the station's report.
Ethanol and Soybean Groups Reject the Rationale
Biofuel advocates pushed back hard on the governors' framing. The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said blaming the Renewable Fuel Standard for high fuel prices is misguided, arguing it overlooks how renewable fuels expand supply and give consumers cheaper options, per Energy.AgWired.com. IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw said that “ethanol lowers fuels prices because it is less expensive than gasoline and adds gallons to the market,” and pointed to expanded year-round E15 sales as a way to boost supply without touching the blending mandate.
The American Soybean Association went further, characterizing the proposed waivers as a giveaway to refineries making record profits at the expense of U.S. agriculture, according to Reuters. The group warned, as cited by Energy.AgWired.com, that granting the petition would “strike a major blow to domestic U.S. soybean markets and rural economies more broadly,” and separately told Reuters that waiving compliance would hurt farm incomes nationwide. The association also argued that national average costs of biofuel blends already run lower than conventional petroleum fuels, directly disputing the governors' core claim.
A Long History of Denied Waiver Requests
EPA has fielded this kind of request before, and not successfully for petitioners. The Renewable Fuels Association said EPA has denied nearly two dozen Renewable Fuel Standard waiver requests from state governors since 2008, along with 14 separate requests from oil refining interests, with every one of them rejected, according to a separate Energy.AgWired.com report. A 2022 Federal Register filing laid out part of EPA's reasoning in an earlier round of similar requests, stating that the agency did not believe the law allowed individual reductions in renewable volume obligations under its general waiver authority and that petitioners in that case had not demonstrated the severe economic harm the statute requires.
EPA guidance posted on its own site confirms that outside parties can petition for a waiver, in part or in whole, if they can show economic or environmental harm. For its part, EPA told Reuters it evaluates petitions in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, without signaling how it intends to rule on this particular request. The agency's own 2026 rule had already set the 2026 and 2027 volume requirements ahead of the 2027 compliance year, according to a Federal Register filing, the same framework the governors are now asking the agency to partially unwind.
The fight pits two Southern governors citing pump prices against a biofuel industry and soybean growers who say the mandate itself keeps fuel costs in check.
