The Environmental Protection Agency today held a virtual public hearing on the proposed rule released last month to establish required Renewable Fuel Standard volumes and percentage standards for 2026 and 2027, as well as to partially waive the 2025 cellulosic biofuel volume requirement and revise the associated percentage standard due to a shortfall in cellulosic biofuel production.
In his testimony, Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper expressed strong support for the proposed renewable volume obligations.
“RFA fully supports the proposed implied conventional renewable fuel volumes of 15 billion gallons for both 2026 and 2027,” Cooper said. “This will provide the ethanol industry with room for growth as E15 continues to gain momentum in the marketplace.”
While RFA applauded EPA’s decision to prospectively reallocate any renewable fuel volumes lost to small refinery exemptions (SREs) in the final rule, Cooper cautioned that EPA must be “extremely judicious” in determining whether any refiners have truly suffered, or will suffer, “disproportionate economic hardship” related to compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard, adding that “it is critically important that EPA accurately estimate exempted volumes in the final rule to ensure that the volume requirements that are actually implemented in 2026 and 2027 match those that are published in the rule.”
American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings welcomed EPA’s “Set 2” proposal, noting it can “expand domestic ethanol use, support U.S. farmers, strengthen energy security, and lower pump prices.”
Among the Set 2 provisions ACE finds encouraging are:
Setting multi-year blending obligations, and, striving to get the RFS implementation schedule back on track, particularly for 2027;
Ensuring blending obligations will remain whole for 2026 and 2027, even if the Agency permits any Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs) for those compliance years;
Proposing the new import RIN reduction to support America’s farmers and rural communities; and
Setting strong RVOs.
Clean Fuels Alliance America CEO Donnell Rehagen also provided testimony today, together with several other Clean Fuels staff and member companies, thanking EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and EPA staff for proposing a much-needed step-change in the RFS Biomass-Based Diesel obligations and encouraging the agency to maintain the proposed volumes as it addresses outstanding small refinery exemption petitions.
“Our industry has made substantial investments over the past several years in both biofuel production, feedstock supply, and distribution infrastructure. Domestic production of biodiesel and renewable diesel has doubled since 2020 and continues to grow. We supplied more than 5 billion gallons of biodiesel, renewable diesel and SAF to the U.S. market in 2024, and we are poised to deliver more in 2026,” Rehagen testified. “EPA’s acknowledgement of the industry’s investments in new capacity and intent to provide consistent RFS growth are greatly appreciated.”