Summer 2026 E15 and Summer Gasoline Specification Variances
In March 2026, the US Environmental Protection Agency began issuing waivers of the federal regulations governing summer gasoline in light of disruptions to global energy markets caused by the war with Iran. Those waivers allow for both the sale of E15 gasoline, which is gasoline with 5% more ethanol than is normally present for a total of 15%, and to relax the requirements on how much volatile organic compounds can evaporate off of gasoline. The intent of these waivers is to make summer gasoline cheaper to produce and slightly moderate the high cost of crude oil.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Oregon incorporated the federal fuel specifications into its regulations and state implementation plan in order to improve air quality in the Portland and Salem metro regions. That allows DEQ to enforce those federal standards. On May 14, the Environmental Quality Commission approved a variance of Oregon's regulations to match EPA's waiver and gave DEQ's Director the authority to extend and make technical modifications to the variance if necessary.
November 2025 Olympic Pipeline Fuel Variances
The Environmental Quality Commission approved the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's recommendation to grant variances for fossil fuel suppliers on Nov. 24, 2025. The variances are a proactive measure to support continual fuel delivery in Oregon if the Olympic Pipeline closure persists.
The variances were effective immediately and expired on Monday, Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m.
Fossil fuel suppliers have 45 days after the end of the variance to report any additional volumes of regulated fossil fuels imported by truck or rail and directly delivered to gas stations, fleets, and truck stops due to the closure. For fuel supplies that used this variance, the deadline for providing reports is Jan. 15, 2026.
Clean Fuels Program
The Clean Fuels Program variance waives the program's requirements in two ways:
- For fuel suppliers that are not currently subject to the program, the variance increases the program's threshold for regulation from a half million gallons of imports to five million gallons.
- For fuel suppliers that are currently subject to the program, imports that are trucked in and directly delivered to gas stations, fleets, and truck stops are exempt for the duration of the outage.
Climate Protection Program
- For fossil fuels suppliers currently regulated by the program, greenhouse gas emissions from fuels imported by truck or rail and directly delivered to gas stations, fleets, and truck stops during the variance timeframe would be excluded from the definition of covered emissions under the Climate Protection Program (OAR 340-273-0110(3)(b)(A)). There would be no compliance obligations for these emissions. These emissions would also be removed from the methodology used to distribute compliance instruments.
- For fossil fuel suppliers not currently regulated by the program, these emissions would be removed from the thresholds that trigger program applicability in OAR 340-273-0110(3). This applies to the 100,00 MTCO2e threshold in 2025 that would make a person a covered fuel supplier in 2025. This also applies to the 50,000 MTCO2e threshold in 2025 that would make person a covered fuel supplier in 2028.
Visit the Climate Protection Program web page for additional
program resources.