The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), which administers the federal renewable fuels program known as the Renewable Fuel Standards (“RFS”), has been grappling with the best approach to incorporating electric vehicles (“EVs”) into the RFS. Specifically, the EPA has been evaluating ways to adapt the RFS (under which renewable energy developers can generate marketable credits
RFS
Exemptions Under The Renewable Fuel Standard
Pursuant to the Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“U.S. EPA”) issues annual renewable volume obligations (“RVOs”), which set the minimum aggregate volume of renewable fuel that refiners must blend with transportation fuel for the following calendar year.
Refineries producing transportation fuel meet their RVOs by blending the required volume of renewable fuel into gasoline or diesel fuel or by acquiring credits (called renewable identification numbers, or “RINs”). The RFS permits “small” refineries – those producing fewer than 75,000 barrels of fuel per day – to claim an exemption by showing that meeting their RVOs would cause them “disproportionate economic hardship.”
EPA Proposes Rule to Ease Barriers in Renewable Fuel Standard Program
On November 16, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the proposed Renewables Enhancement and Support Growth Rule, which proposes changes to EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program and other renewable fuel regulations designed to encourage market growth of ethanol and renewable fuels in the U.S. and provide