(NAFB) The Environmental Protection Agency’s new Renewable Fuel Standard volumes are giving the biodiesel industry a significant boost. The agency raised biomass-based diesel obligations to levels the industry says more accurately reflect production capacity. Clean Fuels Alliance America says the higher volumes are already helping idle plants restart, encouraging new investment, and creating stronger demand throughout the agricultural economy. Paul Winters, director of public affairs, explains.
“So the volume that everyone agreed on was 5.25 billion gallons. That’s the production volume that everyone settled on. Some people were higher, some people were lower, but we all sort of agreed on 5.25 as the minimum volume that could be produced. For the 2025 RFS volumes, EPA had set 3.35 billion gallons as the volume, and that had a pretty devastating effect on our industry. Combined with uncertainty over tax credits, essentially a lot of small producers were forced to idle production.”
The new rule raises biomass-based diesel volumes to about 5.4 billion gallons. Winters says the impact is already being felt across the industry.
“Particularly for smaller producers, they were a little more nimble in responding. And we saw some idled plants come back into production. We saw other small producers just ramping up to the highest volume they could manage and run at full out. They’ve been doing so for several months now. So overall, the biodiesel industry is operating at 86% of the capacity that is estimated to be operable. It’s not the highest operating capacity we’ve ever achieved, but it’s certainly up there where EPA envisioned it should be.”
Beyond biodiesel production, Winters says the increased volumes are driving investment farther up the supply chain, creating new opportunities for soybean growers and processors.
“I mean the first impact you’re seeing is in the soybean processing industry. So the oilseed processors have invested more than $6 billion over the past four or five years to expand their capacity by a third. The oilseed processing industry for a long time had capacity, running capacity to crush about 2 billion bushels of soybeans every single year. The United States was up planting and harvesting more than 4 billion bushels of soybeans every year. And then there were disruptions in international markets. So this year, the oilseed processing industry in the United States is scheduled to process about 2.6 billion bushels. And it will even go higher next year, 2.75 billion bushels.”
Those investments are also translating into jobs and renewed economic activity in rural communities.
“We actually sent a letter to President Trump in mid-June highlighting several of those stories. So we highlighted, um, a plant in Iowa, in Wall Lake, Iowa, that had shut down in 2025 and had, you know, not laid off all of its employees, but was definitely reducing its workforce. That plant is up operating at full capacity now, and it is rehiring all those, uh, employees.”
Winters says the benefits extend well beyond biodiesel plants, supporting businesses and industries throughout rural America…tape
“It’s not just the Midwest. The benefits are flowing through to other industries like railroads. They’re opening up new markets and new, new avenues. And, um, these were things that EPA certainly was aware were possible as outflows from the from the higher volumes; they wrote these, uh, scenarios into the rule itself and said, this is one of our goals is to promote this type of economic activity. So we are definitely gathering all these stories. We’re definitely sharing them with EPA to show that what they did with this year’s rule is, is paying off in the ways that we all knew were possible.”
Paul Winters is the director of public affairs and federal communications with Clean Fuels Alliance America, speaking to the industry-wide advantage of the EPA’s decision to increase Renewable Volume Obligations.
Audio provided by the NAFB News Service
Audio with Paul Winters, Director of Public Affairs and Federal Communications, Clean Fuels Alliance America
