In comments submitted this week on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Renewables Enhancement and Growth Support (REGS) rule, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) said the proposal fails to address key regulatory barriers that are constraining growth in ethanol production and use.
“In fact, we are concerned some elements of the REGS proposal may actually serve to add complexity and create new barriers to renewable fuel market expansion, an effect that would be the opposite of the rule’s stated purpose,” said RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen in the comments. He suggests that instead of proceeding with the current rulemaking, EPA should “initiate a far more comprehensive process to reform existing fuel regulations in a way that levels the playing field for renewable fuels and genuinely removes regulatory barriers to growth.”
RFA recommends a number of actions EPA should take to reform existing fuel regulations, including establishing regulatory parity in the volatility limits; simplifying the petition process for new certification fuels and eliminating unreasonable criteria for approval; eliminating unnecessarily burdensome and costly requirements related to the fuel and fuel additive registration process; and updating the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) analysis of corn ethanol conducted for RFS2.