Biofuels industry celebrates 10th anniversary of Energy Independence & Security Act
By Erin Voegele, Biomass Magazine.
Dec. 19 marks the 10th anniversary of former President George W. Bush signing the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 into law, establishing the current version of the Renewable Fuel Standard.
The RFS program was first created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was signed into law by Bush on Aug. 8, 2005. The original RFS program, often referred to as RFS1, required 4 billion gallons of ethanol to be blended into the U.S. fuel supply in 2006, increasing to 6.1 billion gallons in 2009 and 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. Two years after its original establishment, the RFS program was updated and expanded by EISA, and now requires 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended into the U.S. fuel supply by 2022. The updated program, sometimes referred to as the RFS2, created nested volume requirements for cellulosic biofuels, advanced biofuels, biomass-based diesel and conventional biofuel. The U.S. EPA issued a final rule implementing the updates to the RFS program in March 2010.
Data published by the Renewable Fuels Association illustrates the significant growth in ethanol production that has been achieved since EISA was signed into law. In 2007, the U.S. produced approximately 6.52 billion gallons of ethanol. By 2016, that volume had risen to 15.33 billion gallons.