U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) joined a bipartisan contingent of a dozen United States senators in urging the Environmental Protection Agency to establish robust and expanded renewable volume obligations (RVOs) in its forthcoming “set” rule under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
“Through this rulemaking, EPA has a historic opportunity to not only reinforce its efforts to restore integrity to the RFS, but chart a new course for biofuels that will help meet America’s diverse energy demands while further decarbonizing numerous sectors of our economy,” wrote Sen. Fischer and her colleagues in an Oct. 19 letter sent to EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
The senators requested that the EPA use the set rulemaking as a “timely opportunity” to insert greater certainty and efficiency in the regulatory landscape of the RFS, noting that accurate and standardized lifecycle emissions modeling will not only assign appropriate tax credit values and motivate continued decarbonization of biofuels, but would also justify growth in RFS volumes to accelerate transportation decarbonization.
Securing reliable, EPA-endorsed lifecycle analysis also would encourage the increased use of biofuels in domestic low-carbon fuel markets and expand export opportunities to the growing number of countries turning to biofuels to meet their energy needs and climate action goals, wrote the lawmakers, who included U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Dick Durbin (D-IL).
“Accordingly, we urge you to culminate the stakeholder engagement conducted via EPA’s public workshop on biofuel greenhouse gas emissions by formally adopting the Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory’s GREET model for lifecycle analysis in the set rule,” they wrote.
Specifically, to guard against “sidelining decades of investment and the diverse workforce that supports biofuels,” Sen. Fischer and her colleagues requested that the EPA set the conventional target above 15 billion gallons, set advanced biofuel volumes that account for increased production capacity of fuels like sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel, and ensure that renewable identification numbers (RINs) for emerging technologies and e-RINs are additive to existing volumes.
To date, the letter has received endorsements from the National Corn Growers Association, the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, the American Coalition for Ethanol, Clean Fuels Alliance America, and the Advanced Biofuels Business Council.