Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Changes to Renewable Fuel Standard Program

Under the Clean Air Act, as amended by Sections 201, 202, and 210 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency is required to promulgate regulations implementing changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard program. The revised statutory requirements specify the volumes of cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel that must be used in transportation fuel each year, with the volumes increasing over time. The revised statutory requirements also include new definitions and criteria for both renewable fuels and the feedstocks used to produce them, including new greenhouse gas emission thresholds for renewable fuels. For the first time in a regulatory program, an assessment of greenhouse gas emission performance is being utilized to establish those fuels that qualify for the four different renewable fuel standards. As mandated by the revised statutory requirements, the greenhouse gas emission assessments must evaluate the full lifecycle emission impacts of fuel production including both direct and indirect emissions, including significant emissions from land use changes. The proposed program is expected to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign sources of petroleum by increasing domestic sources of energy. Based on our lifecycle analysis, we believe that the expanded use of renewable fuels would provide significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide that affect climate change. We recognize the significance of using lifecycle greenhouse gas emission assessments that include indirect impacts such as emission impacts of indirect land use changes. Therefore, in this preamble we have been transparent in breaking out the various sources of greenhouse gas emissions included in the analysis and are seeking comments on our methodology as well as various options for determining the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for each fuel. In addition to seeking comments on the information in this document and its supporting materials, the Agency is conducting peer reviews of critical aspects of the lifecycle methodology. The increased use of renewable fuels would also impact criteria pollutant emissions, with some pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NO<INF>X</INF>) expected to increase and other pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO) and benzene expected to decrease. The production of feedstocks used to produce renewable fuels is also expected to impact water quality. This action proposes regulations designed to ensure that refiners, blenders, and importers of gasoline and diesel would use enough renewable fuel each year so that the four volume requirements of the Energy Independence and Security Act would be met with renewable fuels that also meet the required lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions performance standards. Our proposed rule describes the standards that would apply to these parties and the renewable fuels that would qualify for compliance. The proposed regulations make a number of changes to the current Renewable Fuel Standard program while retaining many elements of the compliance and trading system already in place.