Governors' Biofuels Coalition

The Biden administration’s long-awaited Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO) targets and broader Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) package released on Tuesday seems to have found a reasonable middle ground between refiners and biofuels producers, according to reaction from a range of analysts who cover the industry. Tuesday’s release included downwardly revised RVOs for 2020 and 2021, RVOs for 2022, a proposal to deny all pending small-refinery exemption (SRE) petitions and a 500-million-gal remand to be applied in 2022 and 2023 from EPA, among other action items, as well as relief funds and infrastructure grants totaling $800 million from USDA.  The proposals, modifications and funds seem to have found somewhat of a happy medium, analysts say. In an analysis piece released Tuesday, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) said the package was positive for refiners, modestly positive for renewable natural gas (RNG) and negative for renewable diesel.  Similarly, Goldman Sachs late Tuesday said the release was “modestly positive for biofuels.”