Republican lawmakers from Iowa demand Biden administration increase RFS biobased diesel volumes

Republican lawmakers from Iowa—Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and Rep. Randy Feenstra—are demanding that U.S. EPA raise 2024 and 2025 renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuels.

The agency set RVOs last year at levels that fail to align with market conditions and production outlook.

These low RVOs have already contributed to biodiesel plant closures in the Midwest, including in Carroll County, Iowa.

The lawmakers wrote a letter to President Joe Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan.  

“Not only does biodiesel provide economic benefits for rural communities and farmers, but it has also been shown to significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,” the letter states.

“According to a lifecycle analysis completed by the Argonne National Laboratory using the GREET model, 100 percent biodiesel reduces emissions 74 percent compared to petroleum diesel,” the lawmakers write in the letter.

“For the biomass-based diesel industry to continue to grow, it needs certainty and predictability, and this requires RVOs that adequately reflect the growth potential of biomass-based diesel production,” the letter states.

Since helping to establish the Renewable Fuel Standard in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Grassley has worked to ensure the executive branch implements it as intended.

Last year, he and his bipartisan colleagues wrote the Biden administration regarding a number of rules it issued under the program.

Among the proposals they urged the Biden administration to revise were the unrealistic RVOs Grassley, Feenstra and Ernst are now pressing EPA to change.