The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced last week it will propose the volume requirements for biomass-based diesel for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 by June 1, 2015 and finalize them by Nov. 30, 2015. By law, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is supposed to finalize biomass-based diesel volumes 14 months in advance of the applicable year. The agency is overdue in setting the volumes for 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The announcement last week was, in part, spurred by agreement that was reached on a consent decree stemming from a lawsuit filed by petroleum groups against EPA on the overdue volume requirements. The terms of the consent decree require EPA to issue the proposed Renewal Fuel Standard (RFS) requirements for 2014 and 2015 by June 1st and the final rule by Nov. 30.

In addition to the 2014 and 2015 volume requirements, EPA announced the same timeline for establishing the biomass-based diesel volumes for 2016 and 2017.

The announcement can be broken down into three parts. Part one, the consent decree, does the following:

• Requires EPA to propose the 2014 and 2015 volumes for the entire RFS by June 1, 2015.
  • Requires EPA to finalize the 2014 and 2015 volumes for the entire RFS by Nov. 30, 2015.
  • Requires EPA to address a pending Waiver Request from the petroleum industry by Nov. 30, 2015

Part two, which is not required as part of the consent decree, does the following:

• States that EPA will propose the 2016 volumes for the entire RFS by June 1, 2015.
  • States that EPA will finalize the 2016 volumes for the entire RFS by Nov. 30, 2015.

Part three, also not part of the consent decree, does the following:

• States that EPA will propose the 2017 Biomass-based Diesel volumes by June 1, 2015.
  • States that EPA will finalize the 2017 Biomass-based Diesel volumes by Nov. 30, 2015.

The announcement provides encouragement that EPA will get the RFS implementation back on track and provide greater certainty and stability to the U.S. biodiesel industry. ASA has been urging EPA and the White House to address the overdue RFS volume requirements and move forward immediately on finalizing increased volumes for biomass-based diesel. ASA leaders met with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in late March and pressed this issue.

There are still questions that remain regarding the volume levels that EPA will propose for 2014-2017 and ASA will be working closely with the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) to advocate the appropriate volumes for the program. EPA has indicated that it will propose volume requirements for 2014 that “reflect the volumes of renewable fuel that were actually used in 2014.” The total amount of biomass based diesel utilized in 2014 was approximately 1.75 billion gallons. From there, ASA and NBB will continue making a case to EPA and the Administration to provide modest and achievable annual increases in the biomass-based diesel volumes.