EPA proposes higher biofuel blending
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President Donald Trump's administration on Friday proposed to increase the amount of biofuels that oil refiners must blend into the nation's fuel mix over the next two years, driven by a surge in biomass-based diesel mandates.
After months of lobbying on the issue, the biofuels industry welcomed the move, which also included measures to discourage biofuel imports.
The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed total biofuel blending volumes at 24.02 billion gallons in 2026 and 24.46 billion gallons in 2027, up from 22.33 billion gallons in 2025.
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, refiners are required to blend large volumes of biofuels into the US fuel supply or purchase credits, called RINs, from those that do. Small refiners can apply for an exemption to the requirements if they can prove the obligations would cause undue harm.
The proposal is driven in part by an increase in biomass-based diesel requirements. EPA set a quota of 7.12 billion biomass-based diesel RINs for 2026 — a measurement of the number of tradable credits generated by blending the fuel.
It said it projected that mandate would lead to the blending of 5.61 billion gallons. The EPA expressed the biomass-based diesel requirement in billion RINs in accordance with the agency's proposal to reduce the number of RINs that could be generated from imported biofuels.
After accounting for the reduction for imported biofuels, the EPA said it projected the number of RINs generated for biomass-based diesel would be 1.27 per gallon in 2026 and 1.28 RINs per gallon in 2027. Previously, the EPA projected the average gallon of biomass-based diesel generated 1.6 RINs.
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