Guest contributor – Rachel Gantz, Renewable Fuels Association
Do you remember the scene towards the end of “Back to the Future,” where Doc Brown is refueling the time-traveling DeLorean with banana peels and beer waste?
That was biofuel before it was available at so many of our neighborhood gasoline stations. Nowadays, Doc Brown just needs to pull up to his local station and select ethanol-blended gasoline; no more digging through Marty McFly’s garbage. Thanks to the Renewable Fuel Standard, consumers all across our country have a choice at the pump. However, that will only occur if EPA finalizes a strong 2018 RFS rule.
By Nov. 30 each year, EPA is statutorily required to finalize the annual RFS Renewable Volume Obligations for the following year. In July, EPA proposed to reduce the total 2018 RFS renewable fuel blending requirements below the levels required in 2017. The proposal, if finalized, would maintain the 15 billion gallon statutory requirement for conventional biofuels, but would slash the cellulosic biofuel target by nearly one-quarter, among other changes. While EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has since promised the final 2018 RFS RVOs will be equal to or greater than those proposed in July, nothing is set in stone.