More than forty renewable natural gas (RNG) industry leaders sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler asking him to set the Renewable Fuel Standard’s (RFS) 2020 cellulosic biofuel requirement at a level of at least 650 million gallons to account for all RNG that will be produced and available next year.
The letter comes on the heels of comments from more than two dozen RNG stakeholders to EPA last week at the public hearing on the agency’s proposed RFS 2020 biofuel volumes. Consistent with those comments, the RNG industry letter impresses on EPA the importance of setting the 2020 cellulosic biofuel volume requirement at a level that incorporates all RNG produced and available next year, including new volumes from more than 30 production sites currently being built. The letter also underscores the common-sense notion that the cellulosic biofuel volume requirement should be adjusted upward to account for the impact of small refinery exemptions (SREs) granted by EPA.
The RFS program, and the cellulosic biofuel portion, in particular, has provided a vital framework that has fostered growth in RNG production, which is increasingly converting America’s waste streams into an abundant and affordable domestic energy resource. The RNG industry produces more than 95 percent of renewable fuel used to meet the RFS program’s cellulosic biofuel requirement and recently surpassed the 100 facility milestone in North America.