The ethanol saga continues. After White House meetings yesterday, some details are being leaked on a potential “fix” to the small refinery exemption (SRE) impact on biofuel volumes. Initial reports from the meetings indicated that SREs were not going away, then subsequent reports today were that the SREs – for all intents and purposes – could be wiped out by having EPA reallocate those waived gallons. If so, weekly ethanol blending could break out of its range-bound three year slump.

If the 2018 SRE waived volumes were reallocated, total ethanol demand in 2020 could be about 15.1 billion gallons, almost 4 percent higher than this year (not factoring E15).

The details of the package are being called “tenta...