ABFA: Letter Urges EPA to Finalize Provisions in REGS Rule
by Erin Voegele (Biomass Magazine) A group of 15 companies sent a letter to Assistant EPA Administrator for Air and Radiation Bill Wehrum June 12 urging the agency to finalize provisions in the proposed renewable enhancement and growth support (REGS) rule to remove unnecessary regulatory barriers for the production of certain biofuels.
The REGS rule has been pending for more than two years. The EPA released the proposed REGS rule in October 2016. A public comment period was open through mid-February 2017. In April 2019, the agency announced plans to reopen a 15-day comment period on a portion of the REGS rule pertaining to small refinery exemptions (SREs). That comment period, however, has not yet been opened.
…RINs
The letter explains CARRI is a broad-based group of companies focused on providing high-performing, sustainable, environmentally beneficial, high-quality fuels and biobased products to market. “We represent all forms of feedstock suppliers, technology providers, renewable product and fuel producers, fuel refiners, and marketers,” the letter states. “CARRI’s goal is to provide expeditious solutions to commercialization of these products by focusing on resolving and removing unnecessary interpretative and regulatory impediments adversely affecting commercialization of advanced and cellulosic biofuels and biobased products.”
The letter urges the EPA to take action to allow the production, transfer and use of biointermediates in renewable fuel production to generate renewable identification numbers (RINs). The letter also asks EPA to allow co-processing pathways to generate D3 cellulosic biofuel and D7 cellulosic diesel RINs and to approve mass balance and other alternative standardized industry-compatible test methods under the existing regulations to accurately account for the quality of RINs generated by renewable fuel produced through co-processing. READ MORE
Documentation of OMB Review for REGS Proposed Rule (Regulations.gov)