EPA makes Renewable Fuels Mandate highest yet, says more ethanol in fuel supply will help consumers

The Environmental Protection Agency has set the Renewable Fuels Mandate for refiners to its highest level yet, including 15.25 billion gallons of corn-derived ethanol this year. "Ethanol is cheaper than gasoline at present, so biofuel backers said consumers would benefit at the fuel pump with more ethanol in the gasoline supply," reports Chuck Abbott of Successful Farming.

“At EPA, we are laser-focused on providing more options for consumers at the pump, and today we are taking steps to increase the availability of homegrown biofuels,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Friday. “Today’s actions will help to reduce our reliance on oil and put the RFS program back on track after years of challenges and mismanagement.”

"Trade groups for corn growers and ethanol makers applauded the EPA announcement," while the American Petroleum Institute complained, Abbott notes. "At 15.25 billion gallons, corn ethanol would provide the bulk of the 20.88 billion gallons in the RFS for this year. . . . Next-generation 'advanced' biofuels were set at 5.63 billion gallons in this year’s RFS, down slightly from EPA’s initial proposal. Biomass-based biodiesel would account for nearly half of it, at 2.76 billion gallons. Advanced biofuels, such as ethanol made from grasses and woody plants, have been slow to come to the market despite hopes for development of fuels that did not compete with food crops for feedstocks.

Along with setting the RFS for this year, the EPA adjusted the 2020 RFS to 18.84 billion gallons, an increase of 320 million gallons from its proposal last Dec. 7, to reflect actual ethanol use for that year. It also finalized a regulatory framework to include so-called biointermediates in the RFS. Biointermediates are feedstocks that are partially converted in one facility and processed into a RFS-eligible biofuels at another facility. Earlier this year, the EPA proposed a regulation to admit renewable diesel and other biofuels made from canola oil into the RFS.

The EPA also said it would deny a set of previously pending requests by small refineries for exemptions from the RFS at various points from 2016-2021, and proposed alternative ways from small refineries to comply with the RFS in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020.