
In this our first article on Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, which are tradeable electronic certificates for complying with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), we provide a timely update on U.S. biomass-based diesel (BBD) production in 2016 as well as an introduction
to the biomass-based RINs. Look for updates on all of the four nested categories (i.e., total renewable, advanced, cellulosic, and BBD) in the renewable fuels’ RINs market in future issues.
The Renewable Fuel Standard under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) stipulates that each year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to release a proposed and final rule specifying the mandates for the next compliance year. The EPA submitted its proposal for the 2017 RFS to the White House Office of Management and Budget on April 15, 2016. This proposal contains renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for renewable fuel, advanced biofuel, and cellulosic biofuel. Also, this proposal rule includes the volumetric requirement for BBD for 2018. The EPA ruling issued on November 30, 2015, contained RVOs for renewable fuel, advanced biofuel, and cellulosic biofuel only up to 2016 and the 2017 RVO for biomass-based diesel. The volumetric requirement for BBD is set at 1.9 billion gallons for 2016 and 2.0 billion gallons for 2017. We can now expect that EPA is on track to issue its final rulemaking for the 2017 RFS mandate by November 30, 2016, which is the statutory deadline. But EPA has missed the deadline repeatedly in the recent past. Whether the EPA will increase the BBD volume obligation of 2.0 billion gallons in 2017 to above 2.0 billion into 2018 is yet to be seen.
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