Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Renewable Fuel Standard ...

enewable fuel volume which each party must ensure is blended into gasoline consumed
in the U.S., with credit for certain other renewable fuels that are not blended into
gasoline. EPA will publish the percentage standard for a year by November of the
preceding year.
For 2007, we are proposing that the renewable fuel volume obligation be
determined by multiplying the percentage standard by the volume of gasoline produced
or imported prospectively from the effective date of the final rule until December 31,
2007. As discussed in Section III.A.3, we considered and are seeking comment on
several other approaches for compliance in 2007, but believe this approach is most
appropriate given the circumstances. We are also confident that the total volume of
renewable fuel used in 2007 will still exceed the volume specified in the Act.
In determining their annual gasoline production volume, obligated parties would
include all of the finished gasoline which they produced or imported for use in the
contiguous 48 states, and would also include renewable blendstock for oxygenate
blending (RBOB), and conventional blendstock for oxygenate blending (CBOB).
Blenders would count as their gasoline production only the volumes of blendstocks added
to finished or unfinished gasoline. Renewable fuels blended into gasoline by any party
would not be counted as gasoline for the purposes of calculating the annual gasoline
production volume.
Small refiners and small refineries would be exempt from meeting the renewable
fuel requirements through 2010. All gasoline producers located in Alaska, Hawaii, and
noncontiguous U.S. territories would be exempt indefinitely. However, if Alaska,
Hawaii or a noncontiguous territory opted into the RFS program, all of the refiners
(except for small refiners and refineries), importers, and blenders located in the state
would be subject to the renewable fuel standard.
Section III.A provides more details on the standard that must be met, while
Section III.C describes the parties that are obligated to meet the standard.
3. What Qualifies As A Renewable Fuel?
We have designed the proposal flexibly to cover the range of renewable fuels
produced today as well as any that might be produced in the future, so long as they meet
the Act’s definition of renewable fuel and have been registered and approved for use in
motor vehicles. In this manner, we believe that the proposed program will provide the
greatest possible encouragement for the development, production, and use of renewable
fuels to reduce our dependence on petroleum. In general, renewable fuels must be
produced from plant or animal products or wastes, as opposed to fossil fuel sources.
Valid renewable fuels would include ethanol made from starch seeds, sugar, or cellulosic
materials, biodiesel (mono-alkyl esters), non-ester renewable diesel, and a variety of
other products. Both renewable fuels blended into conventional gasoline or diesel and
those used in their neat (unblended) form as motor vehicle fuel would qualify. Section
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