Renewable Fuel Standard rule boosts biogas recommendation

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently released its Renewable Fuel Standards Program: Standards for 2019 Biomass-Based Diesel Volume 2020 (RFS), which sets the final volumes for renewable fuels in the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Biogas saw a big jump in recommendations this year. Of the 418 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel called for in the recommendation, 388 million gallons are requested from biogas, which represents a 45 percent increase in production from the 2018 volumes.

“This is a concrete validation of the significant growth in the biogas industry year over year,” says Patrick Serfass, the American Biogas Council executive director, in a written statement.

The American Biogas Council (ABC), the trade association for the entire US biogas industry, says biogas systems recycle organic material like food and yard waste, sewage sludge and animal manure, producing renewable energy in addition to valuable soil products.

 “The ABC is very grateful that the EPA has, again, released the final volumes in a timely fashion, as certainty helps to finance and build new biogas systems. We are also pleased that the EPA continues to highlight the strong and growing role of biogas in the RFS,” Serfass says.

“At the same time, we are disappointed, again, that this rule shows zero progress toward activating the biogas to renewable electricity (eRIN) pathway,” Serfass continues. “This important part of the RFS has remained fallow since its inclusion in EPA’s 2014 Final Rule. Activating the eRIN pathway will stimulate additional growth in the biogas industry, which will lead to cleaner air and water, lower greenhouse gas emissions and healthier soil. We want EPA to activate the eRIN pathway immediately by processing the project registrations that are already in EPA’s hands.”