Renewable Fuel Standard Has Been a ‘Resounding Success,’ RFA Tells Senate EPW Committee

February 16, 2022

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(Renewable Fuels Association) Enacted in 2005 and expanded in 2007, the Renewable Fuels Standard has been a “resounding success” by any measure, the Renewable Fuels Association told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in testimony submitted today ahead of a hearing on the landmark energy and environmental policy.

“In addition to decreasing reliance on imported petroleum, the RFS has reduced emissions of harmful tailpipe pollutants and greenhouse gases, lowered consumer fuel prices, supported hundreds of thousands of jobs in rural America, and boosted the agricultural economy by adding value to the crops produced by our nation’s farmers,” wrote RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “And far from ‘distorting the free market’ as RFS opponents often claim, the policy has been remarkably effective in stimulating market competition and giving consumers more choices. Simply put, the RFS ensures renewable fuels are able to gain access to a fuel market that had been monopolized for nearly a century and would otherwise be closed to competition.”

In the testimony, RFA went into detail on these major points:

The RFS has led to undeniable environmental benefits since its inception, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by approximately one billion metric tons.
Compliance credits (or RINs) under the RFS do not increase the price of liquid fuel at the retail level and their cost is fully recoverable by the obligated party.
The issuance of small refinery exemptions has had a negative impact on US biofuel producers, farmers, and the environment.
Removal of unnecessary regulatory barriers that block the use of fuel blends containing higher levels of ethanol, such as 15 percent ethanol blends (E15), would enhance and improve RFS compliance and effectiveness.
The opportunity for the RFS to help meet net-zero carbon emission goals by 2050 can be complemented by a nationwide technology-neutral, performance-based low carbon fuel standard.

Click here for a white paper prepared by RFA in 2020, marking the 15th anniversary of the Renewable Fuel Standard. READ MORE

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program: Challenges and Opportunities (US Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works; includes hearing VIDEO)

BRAWLING FOR BIOFUELS: (Politico's Morning Energy)

CONGRESSIONAL BIOFUELS CAUCUS “PAYING INCREDIBLY CLOSE ATTENTION” AS EPA FINALIZES RFS RULEMAKING (Brownfield Ag News; includes AUDIO)

ACE THANKS HOUSE MEMBERS FOR URGING THE EPA TO PRIORITIZE THE RFS (American Coalition for Ethanol)

Senate Debates RFS Compliance Costs: Small-Refinery Exemptions to Renewable Fuel Standard Proposal Take Center Stage at Senate Committee Hearing (DTN Progressive Farmer)

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL OUTCOMES OF THE RENEWABLE FUEL STANDARD (Renewable Fuels Association)

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst voices support for biofuel rule (KTIV)

Biofuel Industry Defends Record as Administration Mulls Reform (Wisconsin Ag Connection)

At Hearing, Ernst Sticks Up for Iowa Farmers, Biofuel: “A strong RFS supports rural America” -- The Iowa senator laid out the facts as to why the RFS is critical to America’s national security and for consumer access to affordable, homegrown, clean-burning biofuel today and in the future. (Office of Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA))

At Hearing, Ernst Sticks Up for Iowa Farmers, Biofuel: “A strong RFS supports rural America” (KIOW)

Senate panel weighs economic impacts of EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard program (Planet Forward/Medill News Service)

Skor testifies before Senate on RFS’s role in a low-carbon future (Growth Energy/Ethanol Producer Magazine)

TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS, USE MORE ETHANOL, SAYS BIOFUEL GROUP (Successful Farming)

EPW Holds Hearing On RFS (Bergeson & Campbell)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: BRAWLING FOR BIOFUELS: The Renewable Fuel Standard will get a fresh hearing this morning before the Senate EPW Committee, just as the Biden administration works to finalize its biofuel blending mandates under the program that has long divided the corn and oil industries.

Emily Skor, CEO of the biofuels trade group Growth Energy, will tout the environmental advantages from home-grown fuel to lawmakers, and she’ll posit that the full potential of the RFS as a climate solution remains untapped. But Taxpayers for Common Sense argued in a letter to the committee that the RFS has failed to achieve its climate goals “and federal bioenergy subsidies have resulted in more harm than good for taxpayers.”

The hearing lands on the heels of a new report published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences that found that the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the RFS is likely at least 24 percent higher than gasoline. The biofuels industry has disputed the study, with Geoff Cooper, head of the Renewable Fuels Association, calling it "a completely fictional and erroneous account of the environmental impacts of the Renewable Fuel Standard.”

The committee members could also generate some heat:Ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), for one, has pressed EPA to reconsider its proposed blanket denial of small refinery exemptions, while committee members Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have introduced legislation, S. 3380 , to prohibit EPA from retroactively reducing any blending requirements under the program. Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.) represents a refining industry in his state that has previously called for relief under the program. READ MORE

Excerpt from DTN Progressive Farmer: "Folks, the RFS is the law, and refiners have had over 15 years to come into compliance," Ernst (Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) said. READ MORE

Excerpt from Planet Forward/Medill News Service: Wednesday’s hearing marked the first time since 2016 that the committee re-examined the program — a gap that “speaks to the intricacies of the program,” according to ranking member Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.

“The potential fault lines between opponents, supporters and would-be reformers don’t always align between one party or another,” Capito said.

Both experts and lawmakers expressed concern about how EPA policies might impact fuel costs, particularly in light of American prices hitting their highest level in eight years. Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy, said challenges toward EPA policies have been one cause of higher fuel prices. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ July 2021 decision to vacate the EPA’s policy of year-round sale of E15, a gasoline mixed with ethanol, has been impactful as well, Skor said.

“Undermining the RFS and delaying the rollout of E15 means increasing gas prices for American consumers,” Skor said. “Gas prices are driven by the price of crude — not the cost of the RFS.”

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Some panelists said one solution could be allowing several types of biofuel to compete on the open market, giving consumers a greater number of choices. Pugliaresi (Lucian Pugliaresi, president of the Energy Policy Research Foundation) called for both greater market competition and greater research into biofuels with “substantial long-term public benefits.”

Skor echoed Pugliaresi’s calls for consumer choice, saying she was disappointed with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ July 2021 decision, which will pull E15 fuel off the market in June and leave buyers with less options.

“Consumers do need choices,” Skor said. “They need options at the pump… When it comes to competition, as we all pursue lower-carbon intense energy, that’s very important. And critical to that is making sure that the modeling, the incentives, the performance standards are technology-neutral. In this country, let the best win, right?” READ MORE

Excerpt from Bergeson & Campbell: On February 16, 2022, EPW held a hearing to examine EPA’s RFS program. U.S. Senator and EPW Chairman, Tom Carper (D-DE), made the opening statement, highlighting that EPW had not held an oversight hearing on the RFS since 2016. While Senator Carper demonstrated continued support for the RFS program, he also noted that “[f]or example, the amount of advanced renewable fuel used today in this country is far less than the 36 billion gallons that Congress mandated in 2007 be used by 2022. That shortfall is partly due to unforeseen market challenges and partly due to EPA’s delay in approving new fuels to enter the marketplace.” Senator Carper criticized the CAA for prohibiting some advanced biofuels that qualify for state programs from qualifying as renewable fuels under the RFS. He highlighted that volatility in compliance costs for refiners also presents challenges to implementing the RFS. The hearing included further discussions on other management and implementation challenges that EPA is facing and addressed opportunities to encourage increased deployment of more sustainable fuels. READ MORE