In testimony today before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper expressed strong support for the agency’s proposed renewable volume obligations for 2026 and 2027, calling the proposal “an important step toward achieving President Trump’s vision for lower gas prices, a stronger agriculture industry, and American energy dominance.”
“RFA fully supports the proposed implied conventional renewable fuel volumes of 15 billion gallons for both 2026 and 2027,” Cooper said. “This will provide the ethanol industry with room for growth as E15 continues to gain momentum in the marketplace.”
While RFA applauded EPA’s decision to prospectively reallocate any renewable fuel volumes lost to small refinery exemptions (SREs) in the final rule, Cooper cautioned that EPA must be “extremely judicious” in determining whether any refiners have truly suffered, or will suffer, “disproportionate economic hardship” related to compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard, adding that “it is critically important that EPA accurately estimate exempted volumes in the final rule to ensure that the volume requirements that are actually implemented in 2026 and 2027 match those that are published in the rule.”
Finally, while RFA strongly supports EPA’s proposed 50-percent reduction in RINs generated for import-based renewable fuels and fully agrees that there are “reduced economic, energy security, and environmental benefits” provided by imported renewable fuels, Cooper said that enhanced recordkeeping and reporting procedures—as contemplated by EPA—are not needed for corn-based ethanol, given that the U.S. does not import corn ethanol, and corn imports make up just one tenth of one percent of the U.S. corn supply.
