A Bloomberg report says top Trump Administration officials have put together a plan that would give a five percent boost to the renewable fuels blending quota in 2020.
The plan comes as President Donald Trump seeks to counter farm-state accusations of undermining a U.S. mandate that compels the use of corn-based ethanol and soybean-based biodiesel in the nation’s fuel supply.
Officials from the White House, USDA, and the Environmental Protection Agency have been cooperating for weeks in ironing out the final details of the initiative designed to encourage U.S. biofuel demand.
Bloomberg sources say the president hasn’t given final approval to the plan yet.
Back on August 29, Trump took to Twitter and promised a “giant package” of changes would be submitted and approved within two weeks.
While biofuel company shares surged in value with the news, some biofuel advocates say the tentative plan falls short of their push for immediate action to offset waivers exempting some oil refineries from the mandates.
“We just want the EPA to enforce the standards that Congress gave them,” says Renewable Fuels Association Chief Geoff Cooper.
“That means redistributing projected exemptions in the 2020 rule to ensure the statutory volumes for conventional renewable fuels remain whole.”