The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects the Brent crude oil price to average less than $70 per barrel in 2025 and about $58 per barrel in 2026. In its July Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA revised its 2025 oil price forecast slightly upward this month in response to unrest in the Middle East creating uncertainty in the oil market.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor testified today at a virtual hearing hosted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its 2026-2027 RVO proposal for biofuel blending obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). During the hearing, Skor emphasized that strong Renewable Volume Obligation (RVOs) will play a key role in delivering on President Trump’s vision for U.S. energy dominance and rural prosperity.

“If finalized, these RVOs would unlock investments, create jobs, and support growth in rural America by expanding our country’s renewable fuel production and use,” said Skor. “By setting conventional biofuel blending volumes at 15 billion gallons for two years, this proposal will create the kind of certainty that spurs innovation and truly unleashes American energy dominance. This is the strongest RFS proposal we’ve ever seen, with the highest volumes ever, showing this administration’s commitment to American biofuel producers and the farmers that depend on them.”

Skor also urged EPA to make it clear that small refinery exemptions (SREs) will not be granted recklessly, and that any gallons lost to SREs will be made up in the market.

“Only with these pieces in place can this proposal truly deliver the game-changing impact the president wants it to have, and that the nation’s biofuel producers and rural communities are counting on,” she added.

Click here to read Skor’s full testimony on the 2026-2027 RVO proposal as prepared for delivery. Growth Energy is the nation’s largest biofuel trade association; its members produce more than half of all the ethanol produced in the U.S. each year. Learn more about Growth Energy and its membership here.

About the RFS

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was first enacted in 2005 as part of the Energy Policy Act. It was then expanded in 2007 with the passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act. It sets the number of gallons of renewable fuels (like biofuels) that must be blended into the nation’s total fuel supply each year. The RFS remains one of America’s most successful clean energy policies, reducing carbon emissions, offering consumers more affordable options at the pump, and delivering greater energy security for more than 15 years. Learn more here.

The post Growth Energy Delivers Testimony on EPA 2026-2027 RVO Proposal appeared first on Growth Energy.

In 2024, the United States imported about 17% of its domestic energy supply, half of the record share set in 2006 and the lowest share since 1985, according to our Monthly Energy Review. The decline in imports' share of supply in the previous two decades is attributable to both an increase in domestic energy production and a decrease in energy imports since 2006.

Patients who undergo tummy tuck surgery may be in for more than just cosmetic changes — a new study shows they often keep losing weight for years after the procedure. Researchers followed 188 patients and found consistent weight reduction up to five years later, especially in those with higher initial BMIs. Interestingly, lifestyle improvements, such as better diet and exercise habits, may play a key role in this surprising long-term effect. This could mean tummy tucks aren't just sculpting bodies — they may be reshaping lives.

Danish and Welsh botanists sifted through 400 studies, field-tested seed mixes, and uncovered a lineup of native and exotic blooms that both thrill human eyes and lure bees and hoverflies in droves, offering ready-made recipes for transforming lawns, parks, and patios into vibrant pollinator hotspots.

Scientists found that embryonic skin cells “whisper” through faint mechanical tugs, using the same force-sensing proteins that make our ears ultrasensitive. By syncing these micro-movements, the cells choreograph the embryo’s shape, a dance captured with AI-powered imaging and computer models. Blocking the cells’ ability to feel the whispers stalls development, hinting that life’s first instructions are mechanical. The discovery suggests hearing hijacked an ancient force-sensing toolkit originally meant for building bodies.

Scientists have finally uncovered a quantum counterpart to Carnot’s famed second law, showing that entanglement—once thought stubbornly irreversible—can be shuffled back and forth without loss if you plug in a clever “entanglement battery.”

Researchers have developed an ultra-thin drumhead-like membrane that lets sound signals, or phonons, travel through it with astonishingly low loss, better than even electronic circuits. These near-lossless vibrations open the door to new ways of transferring information in systems like quantum computers or ultra-sensitive biological sensors.

Scientists have decoded the sea spider’s genome for the first time, revealing how its strangely shaped body—with organs in its legs and barely any abdomen—may be tied to a missing gene. The detailed DNA map shows this ancient creature evolved differently from its spider and scorpion cousins, lacking genome duplications seen in those species. With new gene activity data, researchers now have a powerful tool to explore how sea spiders grow, regenerate, and evolved into some of the oddest arthropods on Earth.

When you're mentally exhausted, your brain might be doing more behind the scenes than you think. In a new study using functional MRI, researchers uncovered two key brain regions that activate when people feel cognitively fatigued—regions that appear to weigh the cost of continuing mental effort versus giving up. Surprisingly, participants needed high financial incentives to push through challenging memory tasks, hinting that motivation can override mental fatigue. These insights may pave the way to treating brain fog in disorders like PTSD and depression using brain imaging and behavior-based therapies.

Feeling jittery as the week kicks off isn’t just a mood—it leaves a biochemical footprint. Researchers tracked thousands of older adults and found those who dread Mondays carry elevated cortisol in their hair for months, a stress echo that may help explain the well-known Monday heart-attack spike. Even retirees aren’t spared, hinting that society’s calendar, not the workplace alone, wires Monday anxiety deep into the HPA axis and, ultimately, cardiovascular risk.

Long-lost 1960s aerial photos let Copenhagen researchers watch Antarctica’s Wordie Ice Shelf crumble in slow motion. By fusing film with satellites, they discovered warm ocean water, not surface ponds, drives the destruction, and mapped “pinning points” that reveal how far a collapse has progressed. The work shows these break-ups unfold more gradually than feared, yet once the ice “brake” fails, land-based glaciers surge, setting up meters of future sea-level rise that will strike northern coasts.

Kenyan fig trees can literally turn parts of themselves to stone, using microbes to convert internal crystals into limestone-like deposits that lock away carbon, sweeten surrounding soils, and still yield fruit—hinting at a delicious new weapon in the climate-change arsenal.

Ambroxol, long used for coughs in Europe, stabilized symptoms and brain-damage markers in Parkinson’s dementia patients over 12 months, whereas placebo patients worsened. Those with high-risk genes even saw cognitive gains, hinting at real disease-modifying power.

Immersing stressed volunteers in a 360° virtual Douglas-fir forest complete with sights, sounds and scents boosted their mood, sharpened short-term memory and deepened their feeling of nature-connectedness—especially when all three senses were engaged. Researchers suggest such multisensory VR “forest baths” could brighten clinics, waiting rooms and dense city spaces, offering a potent mental refresh where real greenery is scarce.

A group of scientists studying pregnancy across six different mammals—from humans to marsupials—uncovered how certain cells at the mother-baby boundary have been working together for over 100 million years. By mapping gene activity in these cells, they found that pregnancy isn’t just a battle between mother and fetus, but often a carefully coordinated partnership. These ancient cell interactions, including hormone production and nutrient sharing, evolved to support longer, more complex pregnancies and may help explain why human pregnancy works the way it does today.

Scientists have captured the moment a laser "comes to life"—and what they found challenges long-held beliefs. Using a special technique to film laser light in real time, researchers observed how multiple pulses grow and organize themselves into a stable rhythm. Instead of one pulse splitting into many (as previously thought), these pulses are amplified and evolve through five fast-paced phases, from initial chaos to perfect synchronization. This discovery not only deepens our understanding of how lasers work but could also lead to sharper, faster technologies in communication, measurement, and manufacturing.

Scientists have pioneered a new way to monitor sodium levels in the blood—without drawing a single drop. By combining terahertz radiation and optoacoustic detection, they created a non-invasive system that tracks sodium in real time, even through skin. The approach bypasses traditional barriers like water interference and opens up potential for fast, safe diagnostics in humans.

Deep in Chile’s Atacama Desert, scientists studied a green crystal called atacamite—and discovered it can cool itself dramatically when placed in a magnetic field. Unlike a regular fridge, this effect doesn’t rely on gases or compressors. Instead, it’s tied to the crystal’s unusual inner structure, where tiny magnetic forces get tangled in a kind of “frustration.” When those tangled forces are disrupted by magnetism, the crystal suddenly drops in temperature. It’s a strange, natural trick that could someday help us build greener, more efficient ways to cool things.

Scientists at the University of Sydney have uncovered a malfunctioning version of the SOD1 protein that clumps inside brain cells and fuels Parkinson’s disease. In mouse models, restoring the protein’s function with a targeted copper supplement dramatically rescued movement, hinting at a future therapy that could slow or halt the disease in people.