EPA suspends plan to revise U.S. used oil regulations

U.S. EPA announces 2017 volumes under RFS program

In its latest update to the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a 6% increase in the volume of total renewable fuels that will have to be blended with the nation’s transport fuel supply next year.

“The final volumes represent continued growth over historic levels,” the U.S. EPA said, and meet or exceed the volume targets specified by the U.S. Congress.

The U.S. EPA also finalized the volume requirement for biomass-based diesel for 2018.

The U.S. EPA set the target for total renewable fuel use at 19.28 billion gallons for 2017, higher than the 18.8 billion gallons the EPA initially proposed in May. The EPA bumped up the volumes after the U.S. government revised its 2017 gasoline demand forecast.

The total requirement is 6% higher than this year’s requirement of 18.11 billion gallons and was larger than some in the industry had expected.