Clean Fuels thanks Trump for higher renewable fuel volumes

Clean Fuels Alliance America on March 27 welcomed EPA's final 2026 and 2027 renewable fuel volumes, which set total applicable demand at 26.81 billion and 27.02 billion RINs.

EPA's Renewable Fuel Standard Set 2 rule put biomass-based diesel at 9.07 billion RINs for 2026 and 9.20 billion RINs for 2027. The agency set advanced biofuel at 11.10 billion RINs in 2026 and 11.32 billion in 2027, and cellulosic biofuel at 1.36 billion and 1.43 billion RINs.

The rule also included a 70% reallocation of small refinery exemptions granted for 2023 through 2025, partially waived the 2025 cellulosic biofuel requirement because of a production shortfall, and removed renewable electricity, or eRINs, as a qualifying renewable fuel under the program. President Donald Trump announced the rule at a White House South Lawn event before hundreds of farmers and ranchers.

EPA said the final volumes would require biodiesel and renewable diesel production and use to rise by more than 60% versus 2025. The agency estimated the rule would generate more than $10 billion for rural economies and support more than 100,000 jobs. Brooke L. Rollins, the agriculture secretary, said the volumes were the highest levels ever required to be blended into the fuel supply, would lift net farm income by $3 billion to $4 billion, and would create a $31 billion value for American corn and soybean oil for biofuel production in 2026, about $2 billion more than in 2025.

Clean Fuels had urged EPA in August 2025 to keep the proposed higher volumes, saying they sent a welcome signal to U.S. farmers and biofuel producers and were readily achievable based on current domestic production and investments. In May 2025, a bipartisan group led by Reps. Ashley Hinson and Angie Craig asked the White House to set the biomass-based diesel RVO at 5.25 billion gallons in 2026 and to account for small refinery exemptions in the final rule.

Ethanol groups, including the Renewable Fuels Association and the American Coalition for Ethanol, welcomed the stronger final volumes but criticized EPA for reallocating only 70% of the small refinery exemptions instead of fully restoring those gallons. That leaves the market with a larger federal pull for biodiesel, renewable diesel and corn oil, while the fight over how much of the exempted demand should be returned to the pool remains open.