WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Representatives Angie Craig (D-MN), Cheri Bustos (D-IL), and Cindy Axne (D-IA) led a bicameral group of 11 of their colleagues, including Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), in a letter urging the Biden administration to reject any significant reduction in biofuel blending requirements.
After recent reports that the Biden administration may be considering lowering the Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs), the group raised serious concerns about the harm a reduction in biofuels usage could cause to the Biden administration’s clean energy goals and economic stability of the renewable fuels marketplace.
“We have strong reservations about the potential for the Administration to destroy over 5 billion gallons of biofuel volume from the 2020, 2021, and 2022 RVOs. This action would directly undermine your commitment to address climate change and restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS),” the legislators wrote. “Every gallon of biofuels that is blended into our nation’s fuel supply displaces a gallon of oil and cuts carbon emissions…Reducing biofuel blending requirements will increase greenhouse gas emissions.”
“Rather than exempting refiners of their obligations under the Clean Air Act, we urge the Administration to provide additional certainty and stability to the renewable fuels marketplace by issuing strong RVOs for 2021 and 2022, and declining to remand any gallons from the 2020 RVO. These actions will create jobs, drive American investment, and cut carbon emissions from the transportation sector.”
The letter was also signed by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Ron Kind (D-WI), and David Scott (D-GA).
In June, Klobuchar, Bustos, Axne, and Craig also led 12 bicameral colleagues in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Economic Council (NEC) expressing concern about reports that the agencies were considering exempting oil refiners of their obligations under the Clean Air Act’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
Text of the letter can be found HERE and below.
Dear President Biden and Ms. McCarthy:
Thank you for your work to decarbonize our nation’s transportation sector and help the United States achieve a clean energy future. Your efforts are critical to maintaining U.S. competitiveness across the globe while bolstering good-paying, union jobs here at home.
We write today with serious concern about recent reports that the Administration is considering a significant reduction to the annual biofuel blending requirements known as the Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs). Specifically, we have strong reservations about the potential for the Administration to destroy over 5 billion gallons of biofuel volume from the 2020, 2021, and 2022 RVOs. This action would directly undermine your commitment to address climate change and restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
The RFS was designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the vehicle transportation sector, diversify our fuel supply, strengthen our national security, and drive economic opportunity. When allowed to function as Congress intended, the RFS has delivered on these goals while serving as the economic engine behind a burgeoning bio-based manufacturing sector across rural America and a biofuel industry with a 100-percent U.S. supply chain and a higher union density than the national average.
Every gallon of biofuels that is blended into our nation’s fuel supply displaces a gallon of oil and cuts carbon emissions. Multiple studies from academic institutions, federal agencies, and national laboratories have confirmed that corn ethanol (46 percent ), cellulosic ethanol (70 – 126 percent), and biodiesel (66 – 79 percent) are less carbon intensive than gasoline and petroleum diesel. Reducing biofuel blending requirements will increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Congress clearly intended the RFS to be a forward-looking policy to drive investments in biofuels production, lead to the next generation of advanced biofuels, and fuel a clean energy agenda for decades. Rather than exempting refiners of their obligations under the Clean Air Act, we urge the Administration to provide additional certainty and stability to the renewable fuels marketplace by issuing strong RVOs for 2021 and 2022, and declining to remand any gallons from the 2020 RVO. These actions will create jobs, drive American investment, and cut carbon emissions from the transportation sector.
Again, we appreciate your work to address the climate crisis, and we urge you to reject any actions that would reduce the RVOs or exempt oil refiners of their obligations under the RFS.
We look forward to working with you on this important matter.
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