The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its final rule outlining a voluntary quality assurance program (QAP) to provide regulated parties a structured way to assure that Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) entering into the market are valid.
EPA worked with industry to develop the QAP to help restore confidence in the biofuel marketplace after the discovery of more than 140 million fraudulent biodiesel RINs created uncertainty in the RINs trading market.
EPA’s final QAP is a voluntary compliance tool that renewable fuel producers may adopt to show that RINs have been verified by a third-party firm registered with EPA. The rule also details the treatment of invalid RINs and establishes criteria for replacing RINs and determining who is responsible for replacing them.
The rule further establishes that downstream parties cannot be held liable for RINs generated under a QAP. Currently, downstream parties face stiff fines for owning an invalid RIN.
Although EPA’s draft rule proposed to require full disclosure of biodiesel content in diesel fuel, EPA declined to require suppliers to disclose biodiesel content of 5 percent or less.
A summary of the major provisions can be found here.
Subscribe to Updates
NATSO provides a breadth of information created to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the needs of the travelling public in an age of disruption. This includes knowledge filled blog posts, articles and publications. If you would like to receive a digest of blog post and articles directly in your inbox, please provide your name, email and the frequency of the updates you want to receive the email digest.
