Governors’ Biofuels Coalition writes letter to Trump urging him to enforce RFS ‘approved by Congress’

The Governor’s Biofuels Coalition has written a letter to President Trump urging him to enforce the renewable fuel standard (RFS) approved by Congress and helps to advance biofuels production in the US.

In the letter, they wrote: “Our states are the home to over 200 biorefineries that are producing tens of thousands of jobs, sequestering tons of carbon, saving millions of barrels of foreign oil, and making enormous financial contributions to our states’ and the nation’s economies.

“As governors, we agree that one of the best ways to meet the nation’s energy needs is to expand biofuels production. “

The governors maintain that they look forward to working with the Trump administration to maximise these benefits through the below initiatives:

 • The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should provide parity for E10 and higher ethanol blends. EPA’s erroneous legal analysis that E15 — although it is an even cleaner fuel than E10 — does not qualify for the decades-old partial exemption of E10 from the Clean Air Act’s fuel volatility limitations discriminates against higher blends of ethanol and demonstrates unnecessary red tape from Washington, DC.

• EPA’s lifecycle carbon findings should be updated. The EPA has failed to update lifecycle carbon findings for a decade, thereby sanctioning the use of obsolete data. This distorts the public’s perception of biofuels’ environmental benefits. Recent studies show that an effective way to reduce the carbon in gasoline is the widespread use of high-octane, lower carbon gasoline blends.

• The EPA should enforce the Renewable Fuel Standard as approved by Congress.