The Environmental Protection Agency announced its final renewable fuel standard on Wednesday for U.S. vehicles, increasing the amount of biofuels that U.S. refiners must blend into their fuel mix over the next three years but sparking criticism from some industry officials, who took aim at its lower mandates for corn-based ethanol.
The new renewable volume obligation, or RVO, increases biofuel blending volumes in a given compliance year to 20.94 billion gallons in 2023, 21.54 in 2024, and 22.33 in 2025, according to the EPA.
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That’s an increase to the agency’s previously proposed blending requirements in December, which targeted biofuel volumes of 20.82 billion in 2023, 21.87 billion in 2024, and 22.68 billion in 2025.
It’s also a 2.2% increase from the Biden administration’s biofuels blending mandate for 2022, which stood at just 20.63 billion gallons.
But the obligations also include a lower mandate for conventional biofuels, such as corn-based ethanol, compared to its original proposal. The final rule keeps the ethanol blending requirements at just 15 billion gallons for each of the three years, compared to the earlier proposal, which had increased the conventional biofuels requirements from 15 billion gallons in 2023 to 15.25 billion gallons in 2024 and 2025.
“From day one, EPA has been committed to the growth of renewable fuels that play a critical role in diversifying our country’s energy mix and combatting climate change, all while providing good paying jobs and economic benefits to communities across the country,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement Wednesday.
The final rule comes as the Biden administration has sought to slash greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from the transportation sector, which accounts for the single largest share of U.S. emissions, including by targeting that 50% of all new cars sold by 2030 be electric vehicles.
The administration has also touted the higher biofuels requirements as helping U.S. energy security by reducing the country’s foreign oil imports.
Under the final rule, foreign oil imports would be reduced by up to 140,000 barrels of oil per day over the next three years, the EPA said.
Meanwhile, the anticipated value of energy security will benefit the U.S. economy by up to $192 million per year during the three-year period, according to EPA estimates.
“Today’s final rule reflects our efforts to ensure stability of the program for years to come, protect consumers from high fuel costs, strengthen the rural economy, support domestic production of cleaner fuels, and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Regan said.
Even so, the administration’s decision to reduce the biofuels reduction target compared to its earlier proposal sparked consternation from the biofuels industry, which argued that the U.S. has more than enough supply to meet the levels it had proposed in December.
“EPA’s decision to lower its ambitions for conventional biofuels runs counter to the direction set by Congress and will needlessly slow progress toward this administration’s climate goals,” Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor said this morning.
Meanwhile, the Renewable Fuels Association criticized the decision as both “inexplicable and unwarranted.”
The final rule “flatlines conventional renewable fuels at 15 billion gallons and misses a valuable opportunity to accelerate the energy sector’s transition to low- and zero-carbon fuels,” RFA president Geoff Cooper said in a statement.
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“By removing half a billion gallons of lower-carbon, lower-cost fuel, today’s rule needlessly forfeits an opportunity to further enhance U.S. energy security and provide more affordable options at the pump for American drivers,” he added.
