Statement by Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volumes for 2023-2025:

Today, EPA released its proposed levels of biofuels volumes that must be blended into U.S. gasoline and diesel in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Not only is the announcement once again long overdue, but it’s a stark reminder of how the RFS mandate has failed taxpayers – miserably. The RFS, plus other federal biofuels subsidies piled on, have distorted markets and increased food and fuel costs while failing to benefit the climate and environment.

Making matters worse, today’s proposal calls for higher biofuels mandates in 2023, 2024, and 2025. The biofuels industry already enjoys duplicative federal tax credits, subsidies through the farm bill’s energy title, biofuels infrastructure subsidies, and much, much more. Biofuels special interests received an additional $500 million for infrastructure projects in the Inflation Reduction Act, plus new sustainable aviation fuel and “clean fuel” tax credits, and the list goes on. After nearly 45 years of federal subsidies, taxpayers cannot afford to waste another dime on the mature biofuels industry.

Per the 2007 energy bill, Congress intended for a significant portion of today’s biofuels consumption to be derived from non-food feedstocks such as perennial grasses and agricultural residues. Sixteen billion gallons of so-called cellulosic biofuels were promised by 2022, with significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Simply put, the RFS failed to achieve these goals. Instead, the federal mandate was primarily filled with food-based biofuels such as corn ethanol and soy biomass-based diesel that have cost taxpayers dearly. This is unlikely to change in the future.

In its final rule, EPA should end wasteful mandates for biofuels that do more harm than good for taxpayers, the climate, and environment. EPA should also reject new ways for biomass feedstocks to qualify for the RFS if they fail to deliver real, lasting climate and taxpayer benefits.

For information on how biofuels contribute to higher fuel prices, please see our Weekly Wastebasket entitled “Pain at the Pump.” For more background on biofuels subsidies and policies in general, please see our fact sheets on the Renewable Fuel Standard, biofuels infrastructure subsidies, and E15, in addition to general fact sheets on corn-based biofuels and biodiesel.