Documents Outline 2018 Three-Point RFS Plan Presented To White House

The White House was presented a plan that would have scaled back small refiner exemptions (SREs), provided for year-round sales of E15 and would have made Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) from exported ethanol able to be used toward Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance, according to documents released by EPA. However, only the E15 portion moved forward.

The SRE provision would have restricted the use of those to cases where a significant financial hardship would be seen from complying with the RFS. There are still 39 SRE requests pending before EPA for the 2018 compliance year.

The plan to allow year-round E15 sales was finalized by EPA but is already subject to a court challenge.

The allowance for RINs from exported ethanol also has not moved forward, with some indicating that could create a WTO liability for the US as some could view that step as creating a “subsidy” on exported ethanol supplies. Currently, there are no RINs allowed on exported ethanol.