Franken Suggests EPA's Cuts To RVO Will Be Lower

  • Friday, 25 July 2014 00:00

The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) final rule on biofuel consumption for 2014 may be higher than the reduced levels it proposed in November 2013, said Sen. Al Franken, according to various reports today.

Franken reportedly said the EPA would scale back on the reductions it originally proposed but that the final ethanol consumption level for 2014 would still be lower than the renewable volume obligations (RVO) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) which originally called for the consumption of 14.4 billion gallons of ethanol this year. The EPA, in November last year, proposed reducing it to 13.01 billion gallons.

Moreover, following his discussion with White House advisor John Podesta, Franken said the agency will soon announce the RVO for this year. 

Nonetheless, Franken's statements seems to follow along the lines of an earlier report by Reuters in May which also suggested that the final RVO will be higher than the EPA's proposed reductions but lower than the orginal levels under the RFS.

Back then, Reuters, quoting biofuel industry sources, said the RVO for 2014 would be raised to 13.6 billion gallons, well below the original level of 14.4 billion gallons but higher than the 13 billion gallons the EPA proposed.

Franken did not give any suggestions to what the new levels might be but the fact that this news comes nearly two months after that Reuters report may indicate that the final ethanol consumption level for 2014 could be above 13.6 billion gallons.