The Biden administration on Wednesday called for an 8 percent increase in biofuel consumption through 2025, with lower-carbon “advanced” fuels as the beneficiaries. Corn ethanol would remain the dominant biofuel at 15 billion gallons a year in the updated Renewable Fuel Standard.
It was the first time, the EPA has had a free hand in setting the RFS. The agency said it had aimed for “steady growth of biofuels for use in the nation’s fuel supply for 2023, 2024, and 2025,” with savings of up to $192 million a year in fuel costs.
Biofuel makers, along with some of their allies in Congress, said the industry had been shortchanged by timid regulators. “We should be expanding market opportunities for higher blends like E15, not leaving carbon reductions on the table,” said Growth Energy, a pro-ethanol trade group. Similarly, Clean Fuels Alliance America said the EPA had failed to support the explosion in the production of renewable diesel, biodiesel, and sustainable aviation fuel.
“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,” said EPA administrator Michael Regan.
With the RFS, the EPA set a target of mixing 22.33 billion gallons of biofuels into the U.S. fuel supply in 2025, an increase of 1.7 billion gallons from 2022. The RFS for advanced biofuels would rise to 7.33 billion gallons in 2025, compared with 5.63 billion gallons in 2022, a 30 percent increase. Biomass-based diesel, one category of advanced fuels, would grow to 3.35 billion gallons in 2025, up 21 percent, and cellulosic biofuel, another category, would double, to 1.38 billion gallons.
The RFS for 2025 was slightly lower — by 400 million gallons — than the EPA proposed last December because the agency sidelined a proposal to recognize renewable electricity generated from biogas and used in electric vehicles.
The EPA said it would work on “potential paths forward” for the proposal to create eRINs. “Stakeholders care a great deal about a potential eRIN program,” it said, judging by the large number of comments on the idea and the divergent views of it. Groups including the Renewable Fuels Association said the eRIN proposal was overly complex and inconsistent with RIN rules for other biofuels.
For this year, the RFS included a “supplemental standard” of 250 million gallons for corn ethanol. A similar supplement was part of the 2022 RFS. The EPA said the combined 500 million gallons resolved an adverse appellate court decision over its reduction of the ethanol mandate in 2016.
Environmental groups said the biofuel mandate ignored the impact on imperiled plants and animals from the expansion of cropland and greater use of pesticides. “The renewable fuel program is special interest corporate welfare on steroids that does nothing to address the climate crisis and delays the transition to electric vehicles,” said the Center for Biological Diversity. Earthjustice said biofuels were “a poor use of 60 million acres of American farmland.”
About 35 percent of this year’s U.S corn crop and 46 percent of domestic soybean oil will be used to make biofuels, according to the USDA’s latest estimates. The National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) said soybean crushing capacity would increase 30 percent by 2026, based on announcements of the expansion or construction of new plants to supply feedstocks for biodiesel and renewable biodiesel fuel.
“A vibrant U.S. oilseed sector and the advanced biofuels produced from our products are crucially important to reducing transportation emissions,” said the NOPA.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, the No. 1 state in corn and ethanol production, said the EPA “intentionally failed to expand opportunities for ethanol and biodiesel.” Nonetheless, said Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow, Michigan Democrat, the new RFS is “the highest-ever biofuel volume.”
The updated RFS is available here.