EPA Misses Deadline for RVOs
During the Trump Administration, the ethanol industry cried foul over the slow walking of RVO numbers for the next year. Even though there has been a change of administrations, the industry is still experiencing the same problem.
Peter Tubbs has the story.
Transcript
The Environmental Protection Agency missed it’s November 30th statutory deadline to release Renewable Volume Obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard. The EPA had already proposed extending the deadline earlier in the month.
The EPA is required to finalize RFS blending requirements for the following year each November. The initial proposal was issued in May, but is still being evaluated by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The OMB is believed to be struggling with estimating demand for gasoline and ethanol in 2022 as the economy recovers from shifts in consumer habits brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall gasoline sales have been over 4 percent below 2019 sales levels.
Ethanol proponents are frustrated by the delays.
Sen. Charles Grassley, IA - R “No, just the opposite. They've indicated that they aren't ready to announce them and is contrary to law. I think Monday of this week they should have been announced and they aren't following the law, but more importantly than not following the law. Biden, who campaigned for the Democratic nomination in Iowa, said he was a strong supporter of biofuels”.
RVOs are the targets of biofuels for refiners to blend into the nation’s fuel supply. American ethanol producers were distilling over a million barrels of ethanol a day pre pandemic. USDA predicts more than one-third of this season’s U.S. corn crop will be used in ethanol production.
For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs