Nationwide Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my strong opposition to H.R. 1346. This bill is disastrous for Wyoming refiners and independent petroleum producers, leading to a direct loss of at least 750 jobs in my home State.

Just to correct the record, it isn't the farmers who produce ethanol or E15. It is the refiners, and this bill threatens to put them out of business.

In fact, it is interesting that anyone who supports this bill has not yet mentioned the fact that it is the refiners that will be forced, mandated, to meet the E15 requirement.

The refineries that are at risk of closure because of this bill across the country employ more than 5,800 workers. We could lose upward of 266,000 indirect jobs that depend on small refineries.

The EPA's own Regulatory Impact Analysis of the 2026-2027 biofuel mandate says the RFS will cost American families about $20 billion a year.

This bill would create a $3 billion or more annual cost increase for small refineries because of the blending and compliance costs.

This bill will increase the cost of gasoline by an average of over 35 cents per gallon, with some States seeing an increase of well over $1 per gallon.

At a time when the American consumer and small businesses are already struggling to make ends meet, we should not be adopting policies that make it even harder.

This bill is not in line with the values we support as Republicans such as free and fair markets. This bill is nothing short of a new tax being imposed by Washington, D.C., and it is wrong.

If higher ethanol blends were truly competitive on their own merits, they would not require Federal blending mandates, compliance credit schemes, subsidies, and special regulatory carve-outs to survive in the marketplace.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill.

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