Top 10 Ag Stories of 2025: No. 10

Editor's Note: Each year DTN publishes our choices for the Top 10 ag news stories of the year -- issues and events -- as selected by DTN analysts, editors and reporters. This year, we're counting them down from Dec. 18 to Dec. 31. On Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, we will look at some of the runners-up for this year. Today, we begin the countdown with No. 10: How biofuels court cases and government policies drove continued change in the market for biofuels.

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LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- From a Supreme Court ruling in favor of biofuels groups, to a new Renewable Fuel Standard volumes proposal and more debate on small-refinery exemptions, biofuels news this year was highly consequential and starts our Top 10 Ag Stories of 2025 countdown.

As President Donald Trump took office for a second term, the year started with the U.S. Supreme Court hearing oral arguments from biofuels and petroleum industry groups on the proper court to hear court challenges to small-refinery exemptions to the RFS. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

The Supreme Court ruled later in the year that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was indeed the proper venue. It was considered a win for biofuels because it is expected to bring consistency to future cases.

Unlike the first go-round with the Trump administration that saw the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant numerous SREs without considering how it affected the RFS, the second Trump administration decided to take a different approach.

The administration released proposed RFS volumes for 2026 and 2027 that gave a significant boost to renewable diesel volumes. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…) That proposal sparked a jump in the soybean futures price.

In August 2025, the Trump administration granted full exemptions on 63 small-refinery exemption petitions, partial exemptions for 77 and denied 28 others. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

The following month, the EPA proposed several options to reallocate biofuels gallons lost through SREs to other obligated parties including petroleum companies, also announcing the RFS volumes proposal could be further delayed because of the SRE issue. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

The first Trump administration took a lot of heat for granting more than 80 SREs without trying to reallocate biofuels gallons lost -- by some estimates at 4 billion gallons.

Also in September, the California Senate voted unanimously on a bill to sell E15 in the state for the first time. The legislation was later signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The move opened a 600- to 800-million-gallon market for ethanol. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

E15 in California was welcomed news in a year that passed without federal lawmakers addressing national E15 legislatively.

Despite repeated calls from biofuels groups, the Trump administration did not provide additional tax guidance on the 45Z Clean Fuels Production tax credit as companies continued to wait for certainty on their investments in sustainable aviation fuel. (https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

Even with a lack of 45Z certainty, companies like Summit Carbon Solutions continued to move on to next steps in building a carbon pipeline to connect to nearly 50 ethanol plants across the Midwest.

Summit not only announced that it hired Joe Griffin as a new chief executive officer, but Griffin then launched a campaign to improve relationships with landowners along the future path of the pipeline. The pipeline is considered an important avenue to help ethanol companies lower their carbon footprint enough for ethanol to be considered a good feedstock for SAF production.

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See Editors' Notebook, "Counting Down Top Ag Stories of 2025," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

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