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RFS won’t expire next year, volume requirements in limbo

The clock on the Renewable Fuel Standard won’t run out at the end of 2022 when it resets, but industry leaders wonder how the Environmental Protection Agency will set volume requirements for 2023.

Renewable Fuels Association CEO Geoff Cooper calls the RFS “an absolute winner.” “We shouldn’t expect to see anything less than what we see in 2022 when we talk about 2023 and beyond in terms of volumes,” he said.

At the 16^th annual Ethanol: Emerging Issues Forum, Cooper, said the EPA is looking at getting rid of the yearly RVO process. “That they’d like to look at maybe a multi-year rule making where they’re setting standards several years at a time,” Cooper says. “I think we could get behind that depending on how they do it. I think all of us get sort of weary of the annual grind on these RVO rules.”

According to the RFA, the EPA must establish volumes for 2023 by the end of this year.

The 16th Annual Ethanol: Emerging Issues Forum last week, hosted by the Nebraska Ethanol Board and Renewable Fuels Nebraska, featured an industry CEO panel that discussed some of the most pressing topics in the renewable fuels space.

Renewable Fuels Nebraska (RFN) interim director Pam Miller moderated the panel with American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings, Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor, National Corn Growers Association’s Jon Doggett, and Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Geoff Cooper.