Congressman Collin C. Peterson announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released improved volume obligations in the final Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rule for 2017.

“Today, I am pleased that the Environmental Protection Agency has gotten the Renewable Fuel Standard back on schedule and released more robust, final volume obligations for 2017,” Peterson said. “I have advocated continuously for a strong Renewable Fuel Standard and for EPA to match Congressional intent. This is an important step towards strengthening confidence in the biofuels industry and maintaining a strong rural economy.”

On July 13, 2016, Congressman Collin C. Peterson led a bipartisan group of Congressional Biofuels Caucus lawmakers in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy advocating the agency return RFS volume requirements to Congressional intent laid out in statute.
 
In their letter to Administrator McCarthy, the lawmakers wrote of the RFS, “The policy has created a dynamic market that is fully capable of producing and consuming the statutory volume of conventional biofuels and increasing amounts of advanced biofuels such as biodiesel. America’s crop farmers, biofuel producers and rural communities have made significant investments to get to this point, and we urge the EPA to finalize a rule and methodology that fully appreciates this progress.”
 
On November 23, 2016, the EPA released 2017 RFS volume obligations which set the RFS back on schedule. The final rule increased the 2017 target for ethanol by 200 million gallons bringing it in line with the 15 billion gallon per year target in the RFS law, and also increased the target for advanced biofuels by 280 million gallons.
 

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