The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will keep next year’s biofuel mandate intact with only minor changes.
“Maintaining the Renewable Fuel Standard at current levels ensures stability in the marketplace and follows through with my commitment to meet the statutory deadlines and lead the agency by upholding the rule of law,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said.
The final RFS targets for 2018 underscore a promise that Pruitt and President Trump made to lawmakers who opposed an earlier EPA proposal that sought to cut the biofuel program by 2.5 percent. Although Pruitt said the agency was only contemplating potential cuts, the ire of biofuel supporters from Iowa was felt at the White House and led to Pruitt sending a letter assuring Iowa Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst that he would follow the law and not seek reductions in the annual goals.
The RFS requires refiners to blend ethanol and other renewable fuels into the nation’s gasoline and diesel supplies by increasing amounts through 2022.
The 2018 renewable fuel blending requirement will be 19.29 billion gallons, which includes both the conventional and more advanced blending standards. That’s a slight bump from the original proposal of 19.24 gallons. The bulk of that is met by corn ethanol.
The ethanol industry applauded the 2018 rule, while the producers of more advanced fuels said the standards are a step backward.
“We applaud the administration for standing up against efforts to destabilize the Renewable Fuel Standard,” said Emily Skor, CEO for Growth Energy, a leading ethanol trade group. “The EPA’s on-time announcement upholds the statutory targets for conventional biofuels, which will provide much-needed certainty for hard-pressed rural communities.”
Skor noted that they “would like to have seen a boost to the target blending levels for cellulosic biofuels, and we will continue to work with the administration to advance the RFS goal of further stimulating growth and showing U.S. leadership in 21st century fuels.”
The biomass-based diesel standard will be kept at 2.1 billion gallons for 2018 and 2019, with the cellulosic requirement set at 288 million gallons for next year.
“We are disappointed that EPA did not significantly raise the advanced biofuel volumes in line with the industry’s ability to produce them,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s environmental section and an RFS supporter.
“The cellulosic biofuel industry is positioned for continued growth in 2018,” he said. “Unfortunately, EPA did not adequately account for the potential of new technologies as it set the 2018 cellulosic volumes.”
