Ag associations praise EPA’s 2014 renewable fuels standard proposal as a good start
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a proposed 2014 renewable fuel (RFS) standard that will require refiners to blend up to 15.21 billion gallons of biofuels into gasoline next year, which represents the first-ever reduction in a biofuels mandate that Congress created during the George W. Bush administration. The conventional fuel mandate (corn-based ethanol) would be 13.0 billion gallons rather than the originally required 14.4 billion gallons.
The proposal marked the first time EPA has lowered the overall ethanol-blending requirement from the prior year's target. The move lowers the mandate from the 2013 required volume, 16.55 billion gallons, back to where it was in 2012. The agency is taking comments on a range of 15.00 to 15.52 billon gallons in its proposal. Congress sets the renewable fuels volume mandates, but EPA can administratively lower the requirement in certain situations.