The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to send the long-awaited 2020-2022 biofuel blending mandates to the White House early this week. Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the White House would then be working through a final review of the numbers.
The EPA released a proposed rule in December, but it’s not known whether the mandates sent this week will be identical to December’s proposal. In that rule, the EPA would retroactively set total renewable fuel volumes at 17.13 billion gallons for 2020. That was down from a previously finalized rule for the year of 20.09 billion gallons, set before COVID-19. It also set volumes at 18.52 billion gallons for 2021 and 20.77 billion for 2022.
Both the 2020 and 2021 figures are lower than in 2019 when the EPA required refiners to blend 19.92 billion gallons of biofuels, but the 2022 proposal is higher. Both the oil and biofuel industries eagerly await the final numbers.
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters)