Sponsors (2)
The bill provides predictable regulatory treatment and explicit credits that lower compliance costs and support ethanol and FFV deployment, but does so by locking in specific lifecycle assumptions and regulatory references that risk misleading emissions accounting, creating loopholes that weaken real-world pollution reductions, and imposing legal and administrative rigidity.
Manufacturers and regulated firms (including vehicle makers, utilities, and fleets) gain clearer, locked-in regulatory references and an explicit 31% FFV CO credit that lowers compliance costs and increases predictability.
Drivers who use E85 could see lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions per mile (GREET finding showing ~37% reduction versus gasoline), which may reduce transportation-sector climate impacts for those drivers.
Agricultural producers of corn ethanol may gain market and policy support as corn-starch ethanol is framed and credited as a lower-carbon fuel.
Crediting FFVs/E85 as cleaner than they are in real-world use could weaken actual CO and air-pollution improvements, reducing pressure on manufacturers to control emissions and harming urban air quality and public health.
Framing corn-starch ethanol as substantially lower-carbon could be used to justify policies (subsidies, mandates, procurement) that favor corn ethanol over lower-impact alternatives, shifting costs to taxpayers and locking in less-efficient pathways.
Relying on a single lifecycle model finding (GREET) risks understating emissions from land-use change and other upstream impacts, producing misleading climate outcomes.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires EPA to allow a 31% lower CO g/mi value for flexible-fuel vehicle variants when calculating fleet-average CO standards and to update the regulation within 120 days, with larger cuts allowed if GREET supports them.
Introduced July 15, 2025 by Amy Klobuchar · Last progress July 15, 2025
Requires the EPA to revise its vehicle emissions rule so that flexible-fuel versions of a make/model may be assigned a carbon monoxide (CO) grams-per-mile value 31% lower than the non-flexible-fuel version when manufacturers calculate fleet-average CO standards. The EPA must update the regulation within 120 days of enactment and may allow a larger reduction if a newer Argonne GREET model justifies it.