Current status (as of September 2026): H.R. 1346 passed the House on May 13, 2026 by a recorded vote of 218–203 (Roll no. 164). The next day it was received in the Senate, read twice, and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. Congress.gov's action list records nothing after that.
H.R. 1346 would let gasoline blended with 10 to 15 percent ethanol be sold year-round by extending the Clean Air Act's one-psi ethanol vapor-pressure allowance to those blends. It was introduced on February 13, 2025 by Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE-3) and carries 55 cosponsors — 37 Republicans and 18 Democrats. The House-passed text also rewrites how the Renewable Fuel Standard applies to small refiners, which the bill's title does not mention. Another Clean Air Act bill the House passed in the same Congress, the FIRE Act, changes how air quality monitoring data is reviewed rather than what may be sold.
A note on the name. "Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act of 2025" is what Congress.gov lists under "Short Title(s) as Introduced," tied to the Introduced in House (IH) text. The amendment in the nature of a substitute the House adopted dropped the short-title section, so the engrossed text carries only the official title: "To amend the Clean Air Act with respect to the ethanol waiver for Reid Vapor Pressure under that Act, and for other purposes."
The Reid Vapor Pressure Rule It Changes
Reid vapor pressure is, in EPA's words, "a common measure of and generic term for gasoline volatility," and EPA regulates it "during the summer high ozone season" in order "to reduce evaporative emissions of volatile organic compounds from gasoline." Clean Air Act section 211(h), codified at 42 U.S.C. 7545(h), is where the limit lives. Paragraph (1) directs the Administrator to promulgate regulations, "not later than 6 months after November 15, 1990," making it unlawful "during the high ozone season (as defined by the Administrator) to sell, offer for sale, dispense, supply, offer for supply, transport, or introduce into commerce gasoline with a Reid Vapor Pressure in excess of 9.0 pounds per square inch (psi)."
Paragraph (4) is the ethanol carve-out: "for fuel blends containing gasoline and 10 percent denatured anhydrous ethanol, the Reid vapor pressure limitation under this subsection shall be one pound per square inch (psi) greater than the applicable Reid vapor pressure limitations established under paragraph (1)." EPA states the same rule in plain terms: "the CAA provides a 1.0 psi RVP allowance for gasoline containing 10 percent ethanol."
Two limits sit alongside that rule. Paragraph (6) provides that the subsection "shall apply only to the 48 contiguous States and the District of Columbia," and EPA notes that "Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories are exempted from federal volatility regulations." Within those 48, the allowance does not reach everywhere either: EPA lists eight states that have "received EPA's approval to opt-out of the 1.0 psi waiver provision per CAA section 211(h)(5)" — Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin — and names Maine, New York, Texas and Vermont among states that enforce a standard "that does not provide for the 1.0 psi waiver."
The season itself is regulatory rather than statutory. EPA "revised and relocated the federal RVP regulations to 40 CFR 1090.215" on December 4, 2020, and states that "for retailers and wholesale purchaser consumers, the summer season is generally June 1 to September 15," while "for all regulated parties except retailers and wholesale purchaser-consumers, the summer season is generally May 1 to September 15."
What H.R. 1346 Does to the Ethanol Allowance
The mechanism is a word change, not a new number. In section 211(h)(4), and again in 211(h)(5)(A), the bill strikes "10 percent" and inserts "10 to 15 percent." That carries the existing one-psi allowance from E10 up to blends of 10 to 15 percent ethanol. The bill itself contains no psi figure anywhere; the 1.0 psi is the statute's, not the bill's.
The bill also adds a new subparagraph (C) to section 211(f)(4), providing that a fuel or fuel additive "may be introduced into commerce" if the Administrator determines it is "substantially similar to a fuel or fuel additive utilized in the certification of any model year vehicle pursuant to paragraph (1)(A)," or if it has already "been granted a waiver under subparagraph (A) and meets all of the conditions of that waiver other than any limitation of the waiver with respect to the Reid Vapor Pressure of the fuel or fuel additive," and it "meets all other applicable Reid Vapor Pressure requirements under subsection (h)."
One drafting detail is in the text and nowhere in the title: the House-passed version keys part of the change to a different statute. The amendment to 211(h)(5)(A) applies to a Governor's notification "submitted after the date of enactment of the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026," and adds that "upon the enactment of the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026," any state whose notification was submitted "after January 1, 2022, and before the date of enactment of the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026" moves from the paragraph (1) limit back to the paragraph (4) limit — reversing recent opt-outs.
Finally, section 1(f) orders a rulemaking. "Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall, after a period of notice and public comment, finalize a rule" modifying EPA's Clean Air Act and Solid Waste Disposal Act regulations "relating to the sale and distribution of gasoline-ethanol blends that contain greater than 10 volume percent ethanol and less than or equal to 15 volume percent ethanol." The rule must modify "the E15 fuel dispenser labeling requirements and the underground storage tank regulations."
EPA Has Been Waiving the Limit Anyway
The statutory limit has not kept E15 off summer forecourts in recent years, because EPA has issued emergency waivers on top of it. Its published fuel-waiver log records seven consecutive E15 Reid Vapor Pressure waivers across the 2025 summer season, effective May 1, May 21, June 10, June 30, July 20, August 9 and August 29. The first six each ran 20 days — the May 1 waiver "lasts through May 20, 2025," the May 21 waiver through June 9, and so on — and the seventh ran from August 29 "through September 15, 2025," so the chain covered the whole season without a gap.
EPA's log records that on August 20, 2026 it "issued a temporary waiver to address extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstances affecting all parts of the United States," itself "a renewal of the August 9, 2026, waiver extension." That action "extends the ethanol blending limit in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent, reinstates the 1 psi allowance for ethanol blends in states where it was previously removed, and waives federal low volatility gasoline standards in two steps." The bill would change the statute itself; each of these waivers is temporary and has to be renewed.
The Part the Title Does Not Mention
Section 1 of the bill has seven subsections. One, subsection (a), is the vapor-pressure change; another, subsection (f), orders the E15 infrastructure rulemaking above. The other five — (b), (c), (d), (e) and (g) — rewrite how the Renewable Fuel Standard applies to small refiners.
- A new class of refiner. Section 1(b) defines a "small refining company" as "a company, entity, or group of affiliated entities, including through subsidiaries, parent companies, joint ventures, holding companies, spin-offs, or other associated corporate or legal structures" whose daily average aggregate production of obligated fuels "for calendar year 2025 did not exceed 75,000 barrels per day across all of the facilities of the company, entity, or group of affiliated entities that produced transportation fuel subject to the requirements of paragraph (2)." The threshold is counted only over facilities producing fuel that carries a Renewable Fuel Standard obligation, not over every facility the group owns.
- A 75 percent cut in obligations. Beginning in calendar year 2028 the Administrator must "reduce the compliance requirements of each small refining company under paragraph (2) by 75 percent." A company whose production exceeds the 75,000-barrel limit "in calendar year 2026 or any subsequent calendar year" loses that treatment for that year and every year after, "regardless of whether" its production later drops back below the limit.
- No reallocation. "For the purpose of making the determinations in paragraph (2)(B)(ii)," for 2028 and each year after, the Administrator "may not reallocate to other persons any renewable fuel obligation applicable to a small refining company the compliance requirements of which were reduced pursuant to subparagraph (C)."
- The existing exemption route closes. Beginning in 2028 the Administrator "may not apply or enforce any extension of an exemption granted pursuant to a petition under this subparagraph or otherwise continue to enforce the exemption under subparagraph (A) with respect to any small refinery"; no small refinery may petition "with respect to any calendar year after calendar year 2027"; no petition "submitted after July 1, 2028" may be considered; and, "to the maximum extent practicable," the Administrator must act on all outstanding petitions "not later than October 1, 2028." A savings provision preserves what is already in train: "nothing in this Act or an amendment made by this Act affects any remedy available to a small refinery" over existing extension petitions, and for those purposes section 211(o)(9) "shall be applied as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this Act."
- A new closure-risk exemption replaces it. Beginning in 2028, and "not later than December 31 of a calendar year," a "qualifying small refinery" may petition "for the reason of the imminent risk of closure, permanent idling, or conversion to a renewable fuel production facility." A qualifying small refinery is one that "received an extension of an exemption under paragraph (9)," or whose "average aggregate daily crude oil throughput for a calendar year" — the year's aggregate throughput divided by the number of days in that year — "does not exceed 10,000 barrels" and which "began production on or after January 1, 2007, and before January 1, 2026." The petition must demonstrate the imminent risk, that "such risk is solely caused by the cost of compliance with the requirements of paragraph (2)," and that ownership "has not changed after the date of enactment of this paragraph" — and it must carry "an attestation, executed by a senior corporate officer." The Administrator may grant the exemption "only upon a determination" that the petition demonstrates all three and includes the attestation, and must act within "90 days after the date of receipt of the petition." A granted exemption may relieve the refinery "in whole or in part," but "may only" do so "to the extent necessary to prevent the closure, permanent idling, or conversion" described in the petition, and "shall only apply with respect to the calendar year for which the petition for the exemption is submitted." Across all such petitions, the 2028 cap is the volume of "all renewable fuel, including advanced biofuel, cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, and conventional biofuel" whose energy content equals that of "150 million gallons of conventional biofuel"; for later years that volume is "adjusted by the Administrator in direct proportion to any changes to the applicable volume of renewable fuel" set for the year.
- Those petitions become public. A petition and its supporting documentation "shall not be eligible for treatment as confidential business information for purposes of section 114(c) or any other provision of law" and "shall be made publicly available by the Administrator not later than 30 days after the date of such submission."
- Old credits come back, on conditions. A small refinery that retired credits generated "for compliance years 2016 or 2017" gets them "returned to the small refinery and, notwithstanding paragraph (5)(C), deemed eligible for future compliance years" or "applied as a credit in the EPA Moderated Transaction System (EMTS) account of the small refinery" — but only if it also filed an exemption petition for that compliance year that "remained outstanding as of December 1, 2022." Compliance year 2018 has its own conditions: the refinery must have petitioned "by September 1, 2019" and retired its 2018 credits "by March 31, 2019," and then either the petition "remained outstanding as of December 1, 2022" or "the Administrator denied the petition as of July 1, 2022, and has not returned the retired credits as of December 1, 2022."
How the House Voted, and Where It Sits
The House took the bill up under H. Res. 1224, reported by the Rules Committee and passed on April 29, 2026. That resolution provided for consideration of H.R. 1346 "under a closed rule, with one hour of general debate on each measure," and for "one motion to recommit on H.R. 7567, H.R. 2616, and H.R. 1346."
On May 13, 2026, Mr. Perry moved to recommit the bill to the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The Chair "put the question on motion to recommit and by voice vote, announced the noes had prevailed"; the yeas and nays were then demanded and proceedings postponed, and the motion later failed 112–309 (Roll no. 163). The bill itself then passed 218–203 (Roll no. 164) — a margin of fifteen votes — on the text of an amendment in the nature of a substitute.
The next day the record reads "Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works." That referral is the last entry in the Congress.gov record.
Drafted from primary source documents by LegislationPatch's automated research pipeline, then reviewed, verified, and edited by James Shearn, Editor. Every figure and citation is checked against the official text before publication. See our editorial standards and AI disclosure.