WASHINGTON, D.C., June 21, 2023: American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) President and CEO Chet Thompson today issued the following statement on the final Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) “Set Rule” including biofuel blending obligations covering years 2023 to 2025:
“Refiners are pleased to see that EPA has chosen to abandon its unlawful attempt to turn the RFS—a liquid fuel program designed to promote U.S. energy independence—into yet another nine-figure government subsidy program for electric vehicles. eRINs do not belong in the RFS and shouldn’t be resurrected.
“Congress provided EPA flexibility in the years after 2022 to modernize RFS volumes to derive better carbon benefits from the program and help the program work better for all stakeholders. Setting unachievable conventional biofuel targets is a missed opportunity.”
In its December 2022 Set Rule proposal, EPA sought to create a new “eRIN” obligation which would have compelled refineries to directly subsidize electric automakers for producing vehicles capable of charging with electricity from biogas. eRINs, which were reflected in EPA’s cellulosic biofuel proposals for 2024 and 2025, have been removed from the final rule and legislation has since been introduced to make explicitly clear that Congress never intended for electric vehicles to siphon market share away from liquid transportation biofuels as part of the RFS.
The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) is the leading trade association representing the makers of the fuels that keep us moving, the petrochemicals that are the essential building blocks for modern life, and the midstream companies that get our feedstocks and products where they need to go. We make the products that make life better, safer and more sustainable — we make progress.
