Biofuels Groups Optimistic About EPA’s RFS Proposal: Refute Talk of Lower Volumes

May 29, 2025

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by Michelle Rook (AgWeb) Recent rumors put volumes for biomass based diesel at 4.65 billion gallons, but Paul Winters, Director of Public Affairs, Clean Fuel Alliance America says, EPA has assured them that number is false. -- ... Geoff Cooper, President and CEO, Renewable Fuels Association says the administration has been listening to their recommendations on setting volumes that encourage growth and demand.

“We recommended at least 15 billion gallon for conventional, 5.25 billion for biomass based diesel, and then when you layer on top a little bit of growth for advanced and cellulosic, you can easily see where EPA could be setting the volumes at, the total RFS volume at around 24, 25 billion RINs.”

EPA Says Rumors on Bio-Mass Based Diesel Aren’t True

Recent rumors put volumes for biomass based diesel at 4.65 billion gallons, but Paul Winters, Director of Public Affairs, Clean Fuel Alliance America says, EPA has assured them that number is false.

“They certainly have indicated that the rumor circulated last week was incorrect that the volumes would not be that low. And they do seem to understand and have definitely heard the message from our industry and the unified position on that 5.25 billion gallon volume,” he explains.

Still, Clean Fuels and 48 of its members sent a letter to EPA advocating for the 5.25 billion and reminded the agency that level was agreed upon with the American Petroleum Institute.

Cooper says that is unprecedented. “We have alignment with the oil refiners. That’s not something we’ve ever had before when we go the discussions around renewable volume obligations and the RFS. So that makes everyone’s job easier.”

OMB Holding Stakeholder Meetings

Stakeholders also have scheduled meetings with OMB through June 9 to provide comments, but EPA could fast track the process by canceling meetings to finalize the rule more quickly.

Winters says, “You know, clean fuels is would be very happy to have the rule out in public and simply forego a formal meeting with OMB.”

Either way, after OMB’s review EPA will publish the proposed rule and start a formal comment period, then take that input to craft the final rule.

Cooper says, “Administrator Zeldin has said many times, including on Capitol Hill just this week, he intends to have a final rule in place by the end of October this year, which would help, I think, restore and kind of get things back on the right timeline when it comes to the RFS.”

Zeldin also indicated EPA will be addressing a longstanding backlog of 160 plus small refinery exemption petitions. READ MORE; includes VIDEO

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Farmers Press Trump for Biofuels Boost to Counter Tariff Losses (Bloomberg/Yahoo!Finance)

Excerpt from Bloomberg/Yahoo!Finance: “If we’re going to get behind this America First policy, let’s make sure that we have a great domestic policy strategy,” said Lucas Lentsch, a North Dakota farmer who heads the United Soybean Board. “Let’s make sure we’ve got good demand here at home.”

Creating more markets at home is easier said than done. The US cattle herd is already at the lowest since the 1950s, curbing demand for crops in feed rations. That’s leaving farmers reliant on the so-called renewable volume obligation, or RVOs — a rule that’s been controversial since being enshrined into law two decades ago to safeguard energy security.

Farmers benefit from a higher biofuels mandate, but oil refiners have historically opposed it. Some of that has since changed as Big Oil invested in biofuels in recent years as part of their decarbonization efforts.

“We need a robust RVO to keep US soybeans a profitable business to be in,” said Greg Anderson, who grows the oilseed in Nebraska.

Biofuel Mandates

Agribusiness giants Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Global SA and Cargill Inc., as well as trade groups including the Clean Fuels Alliance America want the Environmental Protection Agency to set the RVO at no less than 5.25 billion gallons for biomass-based diesel starting next year, up 60% from 2025 levels.

Farm lobby groups and US Midwestern governors also want a mandate for US ethanol of at least the 15 billion gallons currently in place.

The American Petroleum Institute is also backing the requests.

“We’re certainly doing our job to push administration to help us and help the industry,” Christopher Cuddy, ADM’s president of carbohydrate solutions, said at a BMO conference in New York this month. “The most encouraging piece for me is the fact that we’re aligned with the Petroleum Institute, which at least in my time has never happened.”

...

Randall Stuewe, chief executive officer of Darling Ingredients Inc., said the previous quotas set under former President Joe Biden were far too low. The company’s Diamond Green Diesel venture with Valero Energy Corp. is a top producer of renewable fuels.

That led to a number of factory closures. Biodiesel plants in the US produced at just 51% of capacity in the year through April, while facilities that make renewable diesel — a fuel that’s chemically identical to its fossil fuel peer — ran at a rate of 72%, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Project Tracker.

“We used to have more demand than supply, it’s now reversed,” said Peter Zonneveld, US president for biofuels producer Neste Oyj. “Some companies are reducing run rates or shelving their investment plans for renewable fuels,” which will make it harder to curb emissions from heavy-duty industries, he said.

“It’s resulting in difficulties for the ag industry too because farmers can’t get rid of their soybeans,” Zonneveld said.

...

A higher RVO is a chance to get domestic biofuels back up to normalized run rates of around 80%, said Brett Gibbs, a renewable energy analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, who estimates the mandate will need to be at least 3.9 billion gallons to bring some facilities back online.

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Sales of next season’s crops to Mexico and Japan, the second and third-largest soybean buyers, are lagging well behind historical levels for this time of year. And China continues to snap up supplies from rival Brazil.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has openly hinted at a bailout, and nearly two thirds of farmers in the March Purdue/CME barometer said aid was either likely or very likely. Still, many growers say they want to sell their crops instead of receiving aid.

“As a farmer, I’d rather receive it from the market,” said Philip Good, a Mississippi farmer who’s the chair of the United Soybean Board. “We go back to the domestic markets, and developing domestic uses.” READ MORE