Written on: December 30, 2025
With this year drawing to a close, it’s safe to say that the propane industry has many reasons to be optimistic. The picture for the renewable energy sectors might be more mixed. So, where does that leave bio-energy like renewable propane?
Some recent articles in *Butane Propane News* — one from BPN’s managing editor Johnny Nickel and another from the Canadian Propane Association’s president and CEO Shannon Watt — offer a picture of where North American research and production of renewable propane stand at the end of 2025.
In January, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO) announced it was dedicating $23 million in research funding to propel the development of biomass- and waste-produced renewable liquid gases. This initiative was kept in place when the second Trump administration came into office, but as of now, we have no news on which projects have been funded. (Announcements were to be made in October.)
Elsewhere, we are seeing more of a mixed bag for rPG initiatives. The administration has broadly phased out renewable energy projects. Of course, the federal government is more generally incentivizing increased production of traditional fuels like propane, natural gas and oil. And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) included an extension of the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit through 2029, which is good news for autogas fleets.
Beyond the question of federal investment in rPG, there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful about the future of this revolutionary fuel. Propane providers of all sizes are expanding access to the fuel, from Suburban Propane to local retailers in Maine, New Hampshire and elsewhere. Moreover, Raleigh, NC, is investing considerably by shifting over many of its public vehicles to renewable propane autogas.
In Shannon Watt’s recent BPN article, she noted some significant expansions in the production and usage of both rPG and renewable dimethyl ether (rDME):
Canada’s national government has also introduced a $370 million biofuel production incentive and intends to take steps in early 2026 to shore up its biofuel market during this uncertain global trade period.
The World Liquid Gas Association — like the NPGA and PERC in the United States — is promoting research and production advances. It notes that there are rapidly growing production facilities in South America, China, Japan, Indonesia and throughout Europe. Earlier this year, researchers at Aston University in Birmingham, England, developed a process for converting glycerol into renewable hydrogen and bio-based propane.
The WLGA notes that renewable liquid gases offer a viable way for isolated and rural communities to have reliable green energy.
The energy environment is undoubtedly friendlier to propane suppliers today than it has been in recent years. But the move toward cleaner, lower-emissions energy sources is not disappearing. State and local governments still have considerable sway over how propane and other traditional fuels are regulated, taxed and incentivized. Renewable propane, renewable DME and other bio-energy options offer ways for propane to get greener and more sustainable.
What will the coming year bring for rPG? It’s easy to stay up-to-date on the expanding supply chain of low-carbon liquid gases by joining the Renewable Propane Alliance.