US EPA proposes higher biofuel blending volumes through 2027

By Reuters

 The Trump administration has proposed to increase the amount of biofuel that oil refiners must blend into the nation’s fuel mix over the next two years, driven by a surge in biomass-based diesel mandates.

The move, which also included measures to discourage biofuel imports, was welcomed by the biofuel industry, which had been lobbying on the issue for months.

On June 13, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed total biofuel blending volumes at 24.02 billion gallons in 2026 and 24.46 billion gallons in 2027. That compares with blending requirements of 22.33 billion gallons in 2025.

Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, refiners are required to blend large volumes of biofuel into the nation’s fuel supply or purchase credits, called RINs, from those that do.

The proposal is driven in part by an increase in biomass-based diesel requirements. EPA set a quota of 7.12 billion biomass-based diesel RINs for 2026, a measurement of the number of tradable credits generated by blending the fuel.

It said it projected that mandate would lead to the blending of 5.61 billion gallons. The EPA expressed the biomass-based diesel requirement in billion RINs in accordance with the agency’s proposal to reduce the number of RINs that could be generated from imported biofuel.

After accounting for the reduction for imported biofuels, the EPA said it projected the number of RINs generated for biomass-based diesel would be 1.27 and 1.28 RINs per gallon in 2026 and 2027, respectively. Previously, the EPA projected the average gallon of biomass-based diesel generated 1.6 RINs.

The volume mandate for 2025 for biomass-based diesel was 3.35 billion gallons, a figure the industry had complained was too low.

This article has been republished from The Western Producer.