EPA to boost mandate for some biofuels: report

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to increase the federal mandate for certain biofuels.

The mandate for fuel refiners to use advanced biofuels, which can be made from waste products such as woody biomass, is going up to 4.92 billion gallons, a 15 percent increase from the current year, in an EPA regulation covering 2019 that is set to be released Friday, Reuters reported.

But the overall ethanol mandate — which can be fulfilled using fuels made from corn, soy and many other sources — will stay at 15 billion gallons, the same level as 2018, Reuters reported, citing an agency document.

{mosads}The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requires oil refiners making gasoline and diesel to blend certain amounts of biofuels into the products they sell or to buy credits from other companies to demonstrate compliance.

The EPA is also set to decline requests from the corn industry to make up for hardship exemptions it gave to numerous small refineries by reallocating those refineries’ obligations across the overall industry.

An EPA official told Reuters that in order to reallocate the volumes, the agency would have to predict how many waivers it would give in 2019 and then adjust the mandate accordingly.

The EPA did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill on the Reuters report.