The Renewable Fuel Standard would be set at 19.88 billion gallons in 2019, up 3 percent from this year and all for cleaner-burning “advanced” biofuels, under a proposal unveiled by Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday. The RFS would include 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol but farm and biofuel groups said the figure is unreliable because EPA issues waivers willy-nilly to exempt small refineries from the mandate to mix ethanol into gasoline.
Critics said the EPA effectively reduced the RFS this year by 1.5 billion gallons through so-called hardship waivers to small-volume refineries. The ethanol trade group Growth Energy said the proposed 15 billion-gallon mandate for corn ethanol “isn’t a real number we can count on.”
By contrast, the oil industry said the EPA package goes too far: “the proposal for 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels…exceeds the blend wall,” a catch phrase for saturating the gasoline supply at the standard 10 percent blend rate for ethanol. The ethanol industry says the solution is use of higher blends, such as E15.
The EPA said it would accept comment on its proposal until August 17. The final rule is due by November 30. As part of its 85-page proposal, the agency said it would not accept comment on its decision not to re-allocate to other refiners the RFS obligations of the small refiners that were given waivers.
“I am honestly astonished that Trump Admin would throw salt in the gaping wound of the ag sector right now given the price disaster of the Admin’s tariff war with China,” tweeted economist Scott Irwin of the University of Illinois, who follows biofuel policy. “Its like they are actively trying to drive away Midwest ag voters.” Irwin says the guide star of the RFS is expansion of the market for biofuels. Congress created the RFS to reduce U.S. reliance on imported oil through use of a home-grown alternative.
An oil industry group, the Fueling American Jobs Coalition, said the EPA package acknowledged that “appropriate action on small refiner exemptions is a statutory obligation” and buttressed by court decisions.
“The EPA should cease granting these waivers to prevent additional harm to the RFS,” said the National Farmers Union. “The agency also must find ways to reallocate gallons lost to the waivers for those gallons…in order to make up for harm already done.”
Under President Trump, the EPA “consistently ignored recommendations from the Department of Energy to reject or limit waivers to oil refineries seeking exemptions from the nation’s biofuels law,” said Reuters, citing five sources familiar with events. Previously, the agency heeded DOE input.
To read the EPA’s 85-page RFS proposal, click here.