The Renewable Fuels Association thanked a group of Democratic Senators today for calling on President-elect Joe Biden to restore the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard and quickly reverse the damages done to the RFS by the outgoing Trump administration. In a letter to Biden, the Senators laid out several steps that will “…support our Nation’s farmers and rural communities while acting to combat climate change.”

“We thank these six Senators for strongly supporting the RFS. These lawmakers understand that when the RFS is properly implemented and enforced, it is an incredibly powerful tool for curbing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector,” said RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “They also recognize that the outgoing Trump administration continues to pose a threat to the integrity of the RFS, and we stand with them to defend the program from midnight-hour manipulation.”

Cooper also noted, “RFA looks forward to working with President-elect Biden and EPA Administrator-designee Michael Regan to ensure the RFS is implemented in a way that fully embraces the program’s potential to drive decarbonization, and we agree with Mr. Biden that renewable fuels play a ‘critical role…in our fight against climate change.’”

The letter, from Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tina Smith (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Richard Durbin (D-IL), laid out four steps the new Biden administration could take to strengthen the RFS, noting “It is critical that the integrity of this policy be restored, and that biofuels be part of your efforts to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the Nation’s largest emitting sector.”

These four steps include:

• Direct EPA to adopt the Tenth Circuit decision nationwide and swiftly reject any pending and future petitions for small refinery exemptions (SREs) that do not meet the standards set forth by the court.
• Publish 2021 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs) swiftly.
• Approve pending pathway applications for corn kernel fiber ethanol and update EPA’s biofuels emissions modeling.
• When reaffirming our commitment to the Paris Climate Accord, include biofuels.