EPA data show biomass-based diesel drives April RIN growth under RFS

EPA on May 21 said more than 1.93 billion Renewable Identification Numbers were generated in April under the Renewable Fuel Standard, up nearly 3% from April 2025, with total generation for January through April reaching 7.51 billion, also up 3% year over year. The monthly gain looked broad at first glance, but the category mix showed a market still leaning hard on biomass-based diesel to carry compliance demand.

D4 biomass-based diesel generated nearly 690.06 million RINs in April, by far the largest segment. Of that total, 460.76 million came from nonester renewable diesel, 193.64 million from biodiesel and 35.5 million from renewable jet fuel. Year to date, D4 generation reached 2.26 billion RINs, up 8% from the same period in 2025. That puts renewable diesel and biodiesel at the center of the compliance load, while the renewable jet fuel line item shows SAF credits are present but still small next to road-fuel volumes.

The rest of the stack was less convincing. D3 cellulosic RINs totaled nearly 7.3 million in April, including 6.56 million from cellulosic ethanol, but D3 remained down 7% year to date. D5 advanced biofuel RINs totaled roughly 20.45 million in April and were down 12% year to date. EPA’s March data had already shown the softer start to the year, with nearly 1.93 billion RINs generated in March and January-through-March generation of nearly 4.9 billion, down nearly 10% from a year earlier. April’s stronger cumulative pace suggests some recovery, but not a uniform one across the RFS categories.

The policy backdrop matters. EPA finalized the 2026 and 2027 RFS rule on March 27, and published it April 1, with a 70% reallocation of small refinery exemptions granted for 2023 through 2025. The agency said the final rule sets the highest volume requirements ever under the program and framed the action as support for American energy security and farmers. In its stakeholder roundup, EPA also cited an industry statement that more than 5 billion gallons of biodiesel, renewable diesel and SAF were supplied to the U.S. market in 2024, and said the U.S. biomass-based diesel industry supports 107,400 jobs and $42.4 billion in economic activity.

Taken together, the April data point to a market that is active, but still concentrated in D4 and still dependent on renewable diesel and biodiesel volumes to keep pace with compliance through the rest of 2026.