In Washington, Growth Energy filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to intervene in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2020, 2021, and 2022 Renewable Volume Obligations, which are currently being challenged by oil industry and environmental groups. On June 3rd, EPA finalized its 2020, 2021, and 2022 RVOs, setting the 2022 RVO for conventional biofuels at 15 billion gallons.
On June 3rd, EPA released its final RVOs for years 2020, 2021, and 2022. The agency’s final rule lowers conventional ethanol volumes to 12.5 billion gallons for 2020, advanced biofuel at 4.63 billion, and cellulosic at 510 million. In addition, the rule sets conventional ethanol at 13.79 billion gallons in 2021 and 15 billion gallons in 2022, while setting advanced biofuels at 5.05 billion gallons in 2021 and 5.63 billion gallons in 2022, including 560 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel in 2021 and 630 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel in 2022. The rule adds a supplemental 250 million gallons that had been illegally waived in the 2016 RVO. Environmental and oil industry groups brought petitions for review challenging the RVO on a number of grounds.
