The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday proposed a final rule to establish Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) blending levels for 2023-2025.
The RFS statute requires 15 billion gallons of conventional corn ethanol to be blended into the U.S. fuel supply each year. EPA’s new rule maintains that level through 2025 and adds a supplemental corn ethanol standard of 250 million gallons for 2023.
In addition, the rule provides for a total of 5.94 billion gallons of advanced biofuels for 2023, up from the 5.63 billion gallons required in 2022. The rule provides for 6.54 billion gallons in 2024, and 7.33 billion gallons in 2025.
The levels set in this rule represent a 120 million gallon increase for 2023 from EPA’s first proposal in December, but a 330 million and 350 million gallon decrease from what was originally proposed for 2024 and 2025. These changes only impact advanced biofuels, not conventional corn ethanol.
The original RFS statute, passed into law in 2007, only provided mandatory blending levels through 2022. Thus, EPA had to “reset” the blending levels based on market dynamics starting in 2023, leading to the rule that provides levels for three years instead of just one.
Further information from EPA can be found here.
