EPA Finalizes 2013 Renewable Fuel
Standards
Introduction
This regulatory action establishes the 2013 annual percentage standards for the
Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) program for cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel,
advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel. These standards apply to all gasoline and
diesel produced or imported in 2013. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
is also providing additional lead time to obligated parties to demonstrate compliance
with the 2013 standards by extending the compliance deadline from February 28,
2014 to June 30, 2014.
This notice also acknowledges that there are constraints in the market's ability to
consume renewable fuels at the volumes specified in the Clean Air Act in future
years, and states that the EPA anticipates proposing adjustments to the 2014 volume
requirements in the 2014 rule to address these constraints.
Overview
Under Clean Air Act Section 211 (o), EPA is required to set annual standards under
the RFS program based on gasoline and diesel projections from the Energy Informa'
tion Administration (EIA). Based on an evaluation of the volumes of cellulosic bio-
fuel expected to be available for 2013, we are setting the 2013 standard for cellulosic
biofuel at 6 million ethanol-equivalent gallons. The approach to determining the
cellulosic biofuel standard for 2013 is consistent with a ruling in January 2013 by the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and we believe the sum of the volumes
expected by the specific companies noted in the rule is a reasonable representation
of expected production. This projection reflects EPA's estimate of what will actually
happen in 2013 based on consultation with EIA, information from industry, public
comments in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published on February
7, 2013, and our own assessment. This action also sets the 2013 volume requirements
for advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel at the levels required by the statute,
SEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
EPA-420-F-13-042
August 2013
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2.75 and 16.55 billion gallons, respectively. EPA previously set the 2013 volume requirement
for biomasS'based diesel in a separate action, finalizing a volume of 1.28 billion gallons. All
volumes are ethanol-equivalent, except for biomass-based diesel which is actual volume.
Compliance with the RFS is implemented through the use of tradable credits called Renew-
able Identification Numbers (RINs), each of which corresponds to a gallon of renewable fuel
produced in or imported into the United States in a given year. Based on EPA's assessment of
the ability of the renewable fuels industry to make renewable fuels available to the vehicles that
can use them, along with the substantial number of RINs that have been carried over from 2012
that are available for use for compliance in 2013, the Agency determined that there will be
sufficient RINs available in the market to enable compliance with the statutory volume require-
ments for advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel in 2013,
EPA recognizes that ethanol will likely continue to predominate the renewable fuel pool
in the near future, and that for 2014 the ability of the market to consume ethanol in higher
blends such as E85 is highly constrained as a result of infrastructure- and market-related factors,
EPA does not currently foresee a scenario in which the market could consume enough ethanol
sold in blends greater than E10, and/or produce sufficient volumes of non-ethanol biofuels to
meet the volumes of total renewable fuel and advanced biofuel as required by statute for 2014.
Therefore, EPA anticipates that in the 2014 proposed rule we will propose adjustments to the
2014 volume requirements, including the advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel categories.
We expect that in preparing the 2014 proposed rule, EPA will estimate the available supply
of cellulosic biofuel and advanced biofuel volumes, assess the ethanol blendwall and current
infrastructure and market-based limitations to the consumption of ethanol in gasoline-ethanol
blends above E10, and then propose to establish volume requirements that are reasonably
attainable in light of these considerations and others as appropriate.
Further, EPA is providing additional lead time to obligated parties by extending the date by
which compliance with the 2013 standards must be demonstrated to June 30, 2014. EPA chose
this date both to provide additional time, and because we project that the final rule establishing
the 2014 RES standards should be finalized by that date. This should allow obligated parties to
take their 2014 obligations into consideration as they determine how to utilize RINs for 2013
compliance.
In a separate but related action, EPA has issued a denial of two petitions for reconsideration of
the 2013 biomass-based diesel standard. In September 2012, the Agency published a final
rule setting the 2013 biomass-based diesel standard at 1.28 billion gallons. The petitions
for reconsideration were submitted in late November 2012, raising a number of issues, including the
impact of the 2012 drought and the issue of fraudulent RINs. We are issuing a denial of these
petitions because they each failed to meet the criteria for reconsideration under the Clean Air
Act.
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Final Percentage Standards for 2013
To calculate the percentage standard for cellulosic biofuel for 2013, EPA used a volume of 6
million ethanol-equivalent gallons. EPA is also using the applicable volumes that are specified
in the statute to set the percentage standards for advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel for
2013. These volumes are shown in Table 1,
Table 1
Volumes Used to Determine the Final 2013 Percentage Standards"
Cellulosic biofuel
Biomass-based diesel
Advanced biofuel
Renewable fuel
6 mill gal
1.28 bill gal
2.75 bill gal
16.55 bill gal
a All volumes are ethanol-equivalent, except
for biomass-based diesel which is actual.
The volumes in Table 1 are the minimum that would need to be consumed in the U.S. in 2013,
Insofar as excess volumes of cellulosic biofuel or biomass-based diesel were to be consumed, they
would count towards the advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel volume requirements.
Four separate percentage standards are required under the RES program, corresponding to the
four separate volume requirements shown in Table 1. The percentage standards represent the ra-
tio of renewable fuel volume to non-renewable gasoline and diesel volume. Thus, in 2013 about
10% of all fuel used will be from renewable sources. The standards for 2013 are shown in Table 2,
Table 2
Final Percentage Standards for 2013
Cellulosic biofuel
Biomass-based diesel
Advanced biofuel
Renewable fuel
0.004%
1.13%
1.62%
9.74%
For More Information
For more information on this proposal, please visit the RFS website at:
www.epa.gov/otaq/fuels/renewablefuels
To submit a question on the RFS program, and to view Frequently Asked Questions, please visit:
www.epa.gov/otaq/fuels/renewablefuels/compliancehelp/index.htm
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