The biodiesel industry is venting its frustration at EPA over what industry officials say is the agency’s “woeful” underestimate of current and future production capacity for the sector, which has led EPA to propose blending volumes under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) for 2023 through 2025 that are far lower than required, biodiesel advocates say.
During a Jan. 10-11 public hearing on EPA’s proposed “set” rule, industry representatives urged officials to overhaul their calculations underpinning the rule in order to correct errors and certain market assumptions that they say drove the agency to propose inadequate blending volumes for the fuels. EPA’s “set” proposal allows for only modest growth in the volumes for biomass-based diesel, which includes biodiesel and renewable diesel, two related types of fuel.