Extension of 2024 Renewable Fuel Standard Compliance Deadline – Final Rulemaking

(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) On March 7, 2025, EPA announces a final rule to extend the Renewable Fuel Standard compliance reporting deadline for the 2024 compliance year. EPA is also making several minor amendments and technical corrections to other RFS provisions. READ MORE / MORE

Excerpt from Green Car Congress: EPA announced a final rule to extend the Renewable Fuel Standard compliance reporting deadline for the 2024 compliance year. EPA is also making several minor amendments and technical corrections to other RFS provisions..

In response, Clean Fuels Alliance America expressed frustration over ongoing delays in the Renewable Fuel Standard program.

In December, EPA proposed a partial waiver of the 2024 cellulosic biofuel standard, anticipating a shortfall of available cellulosic (D3 or D7) RINs. EPA further proposed to delay compliance until the next quarterly reporting deadline, to give obligated parties an additional 90 days to plan 2024 compliance strategies. With the new announcement, EP is taking no action on the partial waiver but is deferring the 2024 compliance deadline for an unspecified period until it finalizes a decision on the waiver.

Last June, Clean Fuels petitioned EPA to reconsider the low volumes for biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuels set for 2024 and 2025, which were set significantly below production capacity and trends. Clean Fuels has also filed a lawsuit over EPA’s failure to meet the November 2024 deadline to set 2026 RFS volumes. READ MORE

Excerpt from Inside EPA: EPA is aiming to propose new biofuel blending volumes under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) in April or May that would aim to set volumes for 2026 and likely one or two more years, biofuels industry sources say, even as officials are delaying compliance for the 2024 implementation year to account for an expected revision of those requirements. By law, EPA should have finalized RFS volumes by last November, but it has yet to even propose them, as the politically charged issue was paused during campaigning for the November presidential election, sources say.

It is unclear how the Trump administration will address the question, torn between rival GOP constituencies supporting biofuels and oil refiners, respectively. Other factors that could affect the forthcoming rulemaking include an ongoing push to expand markets for 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15), as well as EPA’s treatment of various RFS compliance waiver requests, both for small refiners and for the refining sector more generally. If states can sell E15 year-round, including in the summer when it is largely prohibited because of federal fuel volatility rules, this would tend to increase the long-term market for ethanol. READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: The agency on Dec. 5, 2024, issued a proposed rule to partially waive the compliance year 2024 RVO for cellulosic biofuel. The rulemaking also proposed to extend the RFS compliance reporting deadline for 2024 and included language to revise certain biogas provisions included in RFS regulations.

The proposed rule was issued following a petition filed with the EPA by the American Fuel & Petrochemicals Manufacturers on Nov. 1 seeking a partial waiver of 2024 cellulosic RVOs.

Within the proposed rule, the EPA explained that in finalizing the 2024 cellulosic RVO in July 2023, the agency projected that 1.09 billion cellulosic renewable identification numbers (RINs) would be generated in 2024. Projections included in the proposed rule estimated that only 970 million cellulosic RINs will be generated in 2024, creating a shortfall of 120 million cellulosic RINs. Data published by the EPA in January indicates that cellulosic biofuel production exceeded the projections included in the proposed rule, with net cellulosic RIN generation reaching 1.01 billion for the full year 2024, which equates to a shortfall of 80 million cellulosic RINs.

The EPA on March 7 published a final rule extending the 2024 RFS compliance deadline. The rule, however, does not take any action on the proposed cellulosic RVO revision. The EPA is expected to address the partial cellulosic RVO waiver in a future rulemaking.

The extension is needed in order to provide obligated parties with sufficient time to carry out and adjust their compliance strategies once the agency finalizes the revised 2024 cellulosic standard, according to the agency. The 2024 attest engagement deadline is also being extended to the next June 1 annual attest engagement reporting deadline after the revised 2024 RFS compliance reporting deadline.

The final rule also includes several other provisions, including those consolidating and simplifying the existing provisions for the RFS program’s annual attest engagement deadline; updating the standard specification for biodiesel; and making technical corrections. READ MORE