Congress moves to kill renewable fuel tax credits, handing oil industry a win
H.R. 311 — Restoring Fuel Market Freedom Act of 2025 · Filed by Scott Perry (R-PA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 9, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill repeals six federal tax credits for alternative fuels: ethanol/alcohol fuels, biodiesel, sustainable aviation fuel, clean fuel production, fuel mixtures, and related payments. It eliminates tax breaks that have subsidized renewable and lower-carbon fuel producers for decades, effective immediately upon enactment. The primary beneficiaries of repeal are oil and gas companies facing reduced competition from subsidized alternatives; the primary losers are renewable fuel producers, farmers who supply feedstock, and consumers who may see higher prices for alternative fuels.
Why we flagged it
The bill's functional effect is to remove competitive tax advantages for renewable fuels, thereby subsidizing incumbent oil and gas producers by eliminating their rivals' cost advantage. It is a subsidy by subtraction—removing support for competitors rather than adding direct payments.
What the text implies
- Repeal of the sustainable aviation fuel credit (section 40B) removes a key incentive for decarbonizing aviation, potentially slowing the transition to lower-carbon jet fuel and increasing long-term climate costs borne by the public.
- Elimination of the clean fuel production credit (section 45Z, enacted in the Inflation Reduction Act) reverses a major 2022 climate investment, signaling policy instability that may deter future private investment in renewable fuel infrastructure.
- The bill's effective date (fuels produced/sold after enactment) creates a cliff that may strand existing renewable fuel production capacity and supply contracts, imposing sudden losses on producers and potentially raising fuel prices in the short term.
- Repeal of ethanol credits reduces demand for corn-based ethanol, directly harming farm income in the Corn Belt and rural economies dependent on ethanol production and export markets.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose access to tax-subsidized alternative fuels, likely raising prices for ethanol blends, biodiesel, and sustainable aviation fuel. Farmers and rural communities dependent on ethanol demand face reduced markets. The bill transfers wealth from consumers and renewable fuel producers to incumbent oil and gas companies by removing their competitive disadvantage.
Who stands to gain
- oil and gas companies (reduced competition from subsidized alternatives)
- petroleum refiners (lower feedstock costs, reduced blending mandates)
- conventional fuel producers
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Section 40 (alcohol fuels credit), Section 40A (biodiesel credit), Section 40B (sustainable aviation fuel credit), Section 45Z (clean fuel production credit), Section 6426 (fuel mixtures credit), Environmental Protection Agency, Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117–169), MPC (Marathon Petroleum), CVX (Chevron), GPOR (Gulfport Energy), AZO (AutoZone)
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Jan 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 9, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 lobbying clients named this bill on 7 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $3,340,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 13 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 72% of bills with at least one filing.
Scott Perry, the sponsor, reported $668,994 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Growth Energy Inc — $2,170,000 on 3 filings
- Poet, LLC — $770,000 on 1 filing
- Marquis Management LLC — $360,000 on 1 filing
- Clean Fuel Alliance "fka National Biodiesel Board" — $40,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (6,984 characters) on Aug 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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