These days, it seems like everyone wants a piece of the rapidly growing electric vehicle market. And the biofuel industry is no exception.
For the first time, the Biden administration has proposed expanding a politically charged renewable fuel program to include electric vehicles. That means farmers who turn their farming byproducts like corn and poop into power would be financially rewarded when that energy is used to drive electric cars and trucks. Electric vehicle manufacturers would also share in the benefits.
The draft rule that the Environmental Protection Agency proposed today would also increase the amount of biofuel mixed into the nation’s transportation fuel supply — a win for the ethanol industry.
Unsurprisingly, major oil producers are not happy about the novel plan, which is in draft form and awaiting what will likely be a slew of public comments.
“It’s going to be kind of a frenzy,” POLITICO’s E&E News reporter Marc Heller said in an interview today. “You look throughout the proposal from EPA, and they keep hitting on the theme of ‘this has never been done before.’”
Former President George W. Bush signed the Renewable Fuel Standard into law in 2005 as part of a broader effort to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil by adding domestically produced biofuels to the nation’s gasoline supply. (You might remember Bush talking about “switchgrass.”)
The move kicked off years of fights between the agriculture and oil sectors over how much farm-raised fuel should be burned by the nation’s vehicles, a feud that inevitably spilled over into presidential politickingin corn-rich Iowa.
Percentages set by Congress expired this year. That means it’s now up to the executive branch to determine the precise mix.
“Fuel and petrochemical manufacturers, they were upset about this today,” Marc said. “They’re calling the proposal just another subsidy for EVs.”
Also unhappy: advocates for the truck stop industry, who say the proposal to offer renewable fuel credits to automakers would fail to create incentives for building EV charging infrastructure, as Kelsey Tamborrino writes for POLITICO Pro subscribers.
The administration’s proposal has a long way to go before it's a final rule, and a lot can change. But the inclusion of electric vehicles in the federal program is another indication the nation is undergoing a power switch.