Renewable Fuels Association head Geoff Cooper, in a wide-ranging press call, slammed the EPA’s tailpipe emissions rule and delays in issuing new RFS volumes and 45z tax credit rules.
Cooper’s group joined other Ag-related groups in suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its stringent tailpipe emission rule and isn’t buying the agency’s denial the rule is a ‘mandate’. Cooper said, “You can call it whatever you want, but if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s a duck. The only way automakers can comply with these standards, long-term, is to dramatically increase the production of electric vehicles and dramatically reduce the production of internal combustion engine vehicles.”
Thereby, forcing two-thirds of new-light duty vehicle sales to be EVs by 2032.
Meantime, Cooper says RFA’s members are still waiting for Treasury rules and guidance on 45z tax credits due next year and crucial for the success of sustainable aviation fuel. Cooper said, “What will the carbon intensity modeling look like, how will climate-smart ag practices be integrated into carbon intensity scoring and just so many other questions.”
Cooper is confident the 45z final rules will unbundle and expand climate-smart practices and fertilizer use. Also unresolved are year-round E15 sales outside of eight Midwest states, an RFA appeal to the Supreme Court on Small Refinery Exemptions, and new Renewable Volume Obligations due on November 1st.
He said, “EPA has already made clear that they won’t make that deadline. We don’t think we’ll see a proposal until well after the election, but won’t see a final rule until this time, next year.”
And Cooper says RFA is pressing the EPA to restrict tax credits going to mislabeled cooking oil and tallow from China and Brazil, now used to make one in every six gallons of U.S. biodiesel.
Story by Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau Washington; courtesy of NAFB News Service
