EPA Eyes Supplemental Rule To Address Biofuel Waivers, Reaffirms Support For Liquid Fuels Market
Trump Administration Revises Renewable Fuel Standard Volume Requirements for 2026 and 2027 to Account for Small Refinery Exemptions, Aiming to Restore Program’s Purpose After “Four Years of Neglect.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM) to adjust Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volume requirements for 2026 and 2027, a move designed to address the impact of recent small refinery exemption (SRE) decisions.
The proposal aims to correct what the Trump Administration describes as a neglect of key RFS components by the previous administration.
The SNPRM directly responds to the August 22, 2025, decision to grant significant SREs for the 2023 and 2024 compliance years, with more exemptions expected for 2025. These exemptions have increased the available supply of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) for obligated parties to use for compliance, which could potentially impact the demand for renewable fuel in the future.
The EPA’s new proposal offers two distinct approaches for public comment, seeking to balance the RFS program’s goal of supporting renewable fuels with economic impacts and legal requirements:
- Accounting for 100 percent of the exempted RVOs from 2023-2025.
- Accounting for 50 percent of the exempted RVOs from 2023-2025.
The agency is also open to comments on other reallocation volumes.
According to a statement from the EPA Press Office, this proposal is an important step in “repairing the damage done after four years of the Biden-Harris Administration neglecting key components of the RFS program.”
The statement also criticized a perceived strategy to transform the RFS into a subsidy for electric vehicle charging, asserting the current administration’s renewed commitment to supporting biofuels as an “essential part of a thriving liquid fuels market.”
This supplemental rule follows a prior proposal in June to establish RFS volume requirements for 2026 and 2027. The EPA is now reviewing public comments from that period, which closed on August 8, 2025, and plans to issue one final “Set 2” rule that incorporates both the 2026-2027 RVOs and the reallocation of SREs.
Following its publication in the Federal Register, the EPA will hold a public hearing and open a 30-day public comment period.
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