Lawmakers Are Urging EPA to Get RFS Back on Track

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July 20, 2022

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by Currey McCullough (RFD TV) Just this morning (July 19, 2022) on a call with ag reporters, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley said he and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar are sending a letter urging the EPA to increase volumes of biodiesel and renewable diesel.

“Adding more homegrown fuels to the nation’s fuels will lower diesel prices. So, the President is going all over the world talking to tyrants and dictators begging for more oil when we’ve got renewable fuel growth right here in Midwestern America. That’s why the letter asks the EPA to get RFS back on track and issue timely rules so that our country can take advantage of these clean burning fuels and give the biofuels industry more certainty,” says Grassley.

Grassley says he could see the U.S. falling into a shallow recession, and he predicts a long, slow decline in fuel costs unless there is a change in policies from this Administration that could spur a faster price drop. READ MORE: includes VIDEO

Full text of the letter is available HERE.

Bipartisan Letter to EPA Asks Agency to Support Advanced Biofuel Production (KFGO/NAFB News Service)

Grassley, Klobuchar Lead Bipartisan Group In Urging EPA To Support Advanced Biofuel Production (Office of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Blunt, Colleagues Urge Biden Administration to Increase Biodiesel Volumes, Provide Certainty to Producers (Macon County Home Press)

EPA urged to support higher advanced biofuels use (Farm Progress)

Clean Fuels Applauds Senators’ Support for a Strong RFS (Clean Fuels Alliance America)

Senators ask EPA to set strong RVOs for biomass-based diesel (Biodiesel Magazine)

EPA urged to support higher advanced biofuels use (Feedstuffs)

Excerpt from KFGO/NAFB News Service: Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, both members of the Senate Ag Committee, wrote a letter with 22 colleagues to the Environmental Protection Agency about biofuels. The letter asks EPA Administrator Michael Regan to support higher amounts of biomass-based biodiesel and other advanced biofuels in the upcoming 2023 and 2024 Renewable Volume Obligations.

“Advanced biofuels have a critical role in addressing some of the economic challenges we face today,” Grassley says in the letter.

The senators also say that the production and use of advanced biofuels benefit the economy and the environment in many ways.

For example, the production process involves utilizing resources that would otherwise be of no use, including surplus vegetable oils, recycled cooking oils, and animal fats. Production of clean-burning, homegrown biofuels supports 13 percent of the value of U.S. soybeans.

Laboratory estimates say biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 74 percent compared to regular diesel. READ MORE

Excerpt from Farm Progress:The letter also coincides with a new study that finds more emission benefits at a lower cost from accelerated fleet turnover and use of biofuels and renewable fuels rather than switching to electrified medium and heavy-duty trucks.

…

Medium and heavy-duty trucks operating in 10 Northeastern states (Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont) that have adopted California’s low emission (LEV) and zero emission vehicle (ZEV) regulations were studied by Stillwater Associates for the Diesel Technology Forum. An analysis was undertaken to analyze the environmental benefits attainable from three strategies in the 2022-2032 period; electrification, accelerated fleet turnover and use of biodiesel and renewable diesel fuel.

This study demonstrates that accelerating fleet turnover and the use of renewable and biodiesel fuels can deliver significantly more benefits that outweigh those possible from EVs in the region in the study period. As these fuels can be used in all diesel vehicles today, fueling the diesel vehicles in the study with 100% renewable diesel resulted in three times larger cumulative greenhouse gas reductions by 2032 than the EV scenarios. Using B20 – a 20% blend of biodiesel with 80% petroleum diesel – provided about the same cumulative GHG reduction.

“The urgency to implement solutions to reduce greenhouse gases from transportation and address climate change is heard on a daily basis. Transitions to new energy sources still have considerable uncertainties and longer timeframes – a decade or more — to meaningful implementation,” says Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum. “Some solutions will be available sooner than others and at larger scale than others. Advanced diesel technology, as well as renewable and biodiesel fuels, are key available solutions that can deliver big impacts today.”

“All eyes seem to be focused on electrification as the best if not the only strategy for the future fuel and technology in the transportation sector. This work has illuminated that’s overly simplistic; that there are significant, less expensive, and more available emissions reduction strategies for these workhorse vehicles which can enable greater emission reductions to be delivered more rapidly,” says Gary Yowell, automotive engineer at Stillwater Associates.

Beyond GHG emissions, the research also highlighted the impacts of an advanced diesel versus electrification strategy on regional air quality as well, finding that the business-as-usual case replacing pre-2007 model year diesel vehicles which lacked diesel particulate filters with advanced technology diesel vehicles provided the largest particulate matter reduction. This is due to new technology diesel engines’ 98% PM reductions compared to EVs’ 95% PM reduction assuming power from the U.S. Grid Mix. READ MORE

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