On November 23, 2016, EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, signed the final rule on the RFS volume standards for 2017 and biobased diesel standards for 2018. This final rule will increase the renewable fuel volume requirements as reported in the Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG®) post “EPA Releases Proposed Renewable Fuel Volume Requirements.” The proposed volume requirements are:
| ? |
Cellulosic biofuel, from 230 million gallons in 2016 to 311 million gallons in 2017; |
| ? |
Advanced biofuel, from 3.61 billion gallons in 2016 to 4.28 billion gallons in 2017; |
| ? |
Renewable fuel, from 18.11 billion gallons in 2016 to 19.28 billion gallons in 2017; and |
| ? | Biomass-based diesel, from 2 billion gallons in 2017 to 2.1 billion gallons in 2018. |
These volumes change the percentage standards to 0.173 percent for cellulosic biofuel, 2.38 percent for advanced biofuel, 10.70 percent for renewable fuel, and 1.67 percent for biomass-based diesel. The final rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register during December 2016.