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The
Renewable Fuel Standard, enacted in the mid-2000s, mandates the
amount of biofuels like landfill or agricultural methane that
oil refiners must blend into the nation's fuel mix, or buy
tradable credits - known as RINs - from those that do.
The standard has long served as a battleground between the
powerful oil and corn lobbies. The Biden administration's
November proposal would make it possible for electric vehicles
charged using power generated by biofuels to receive credits.
The proposal would boost benefits for electric vehicle
manufacturers such as Tesla.
Adding the electric vehicle industry to the standard will
introduce a new set of stakeholders into an already unwieldy
situation. The United States has been using biofuel credits to
reduce carbon emissions for years, but its effect has been
unclear.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which administers the
program, will sort through stakeholder comments in 2023 to
finalize a rule. They must finalize the proposed obligations by
mid-June. It is unclear if the EPA will change the proposal.
The transportation sector accounts for about a quarter of the
country's greenhouse gases, and the biofuel blending proposal
comes at a time when President Joe Biden's administration is
pushing for lower-polluting energy sources.
"(The EPA) must also hold true to the legacy of RFS as a liquid
fuels program — not an electric vehicle program — by rejecting
yet another massive regulatory subsidy for electric vehicle
manufacturers," Geoff Moody, an executive at the refinery trade
group the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, said
last month.
The oil industry thinks the RFS mandates are expensive and
threaten to put oil refineries, and its blue-collar workers, out
of business. Corn and biofuel groups like the mandates, as it
increases demand for their products.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an automobile
manufacturers trade group, said it supports an "e-RINs" program.
The American Biogas Council also lauded the proposal, saying it
will help decarbonize transportation and increase organic
materials recycling, especially from small towns, farms and food
processors.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Josie Kao)
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