Fuel Retailers Applaud Trump Administration’s Efforts to Put Renewable Fuel Standard ‘Back on Track’
ALEXANDRIA, VA — NATSO, representing truck stops and travel centers, SIGMA: America’s Leading Fuel Marketers, and the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), commended the Trump Administration for its considerable effort to implement timely rulemakings to reorient the Renewable Fuel Standard and put it ‘back on track.’
The Environmental Protection Agency’s 2026 and 2027 proposed Renewable Volume Obligations adhere far more closely to the market’s capacity to consume biofuel than the final volumes of 2024 and 2025. NATSO, SIGMA and NACS support the proposed trajectory and are grateful that the agency appears to be keeping the RFS program on track for growth.
NATSO, SIGMA and NACS urge EPA not to lose sight of the proposal’s real-world impact on retail fuel prices and stand ready to work with the Administration to implement this important and complex regulatory standard. The right policy framework will drive renewable fuel use — bolstering America’s biofuels industry — while limiting inflationary pressures on fuel prices.
NATSO, SIGMA and NACS outlined the following policies in comments filed with EPA:
Reducing Renewable Identification Number (RIN) generation for imported fuels and feedstocks will lead to market volatility. Providing equal treatment for fuels and feedstocks originating in the United States, Canada and Mexico can align the RFS with the ‘Section 45Z’ Clean Fuel Production Tax Credit, avoiding complexity between these two incentives. Alternatively, EPA should maintain overall RVO levels by scaling back the provisions for imported fuels and feedstocks and increase the RVO by an equivalent amount.
Deny all small refinery exemption petitions. All refiners, regardless of size, embed the RVO costs into their gross processing margin and do not suffer disproportionate harm. Small refiners carry the same market risks and uncertainty confronting larger refiners when making RIN purchase decisions. If EPA grants SRE waivers, it should reallocate waived obligations.
Eliminate preferential treatment for renewable jet fuel under the RFS. EPA should obligate petroleum jet fuel under the RFS or preclude renewable jet fuel producers from generating RIN credits. Allowing renewable jet fuel producers to monetize RINs discourages the production of over-the-road biofuels and reduces overall biofuel consumption. EPA should not choose winners and losers between jet fuel and over-the-road fuel under the RFS.
Refrain from exercising EPA’s cellulosic waiver authority within ongoing compliance years. Partially waiving the 2025 cellulosic biofuel volume requirement using the cellulosic waiver authority while simultaneously proposing 2026 and 2027 volumes lower than those originally finalized for 2025 will discourage renewable natural gas investment.
The RFS prompts fuel retailers to incorporate biofuels into their diesel supply as a means of lowering prices for consumers and gaining market share. NATSO, SIGMA and NACS members constitute approximately 90 percent of fuel sold at retail in the United States, including virtually all retail sales of biodiesel and renewable diesel fuels that are incentivized under the RFS.
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