RNG Stakeholders Testify at EPA Renewable Fuel Volume Standard Hearing
By Lauren Turner, NGT News.
Several renewable natural gas stakeholders attended the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public comment hearing today on the 2018 Renewable Fuel Volume Standard Proposed Rule to advocate for RNG transportation fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.
According to the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition), the RNG industry was heavily represented at the hearing, noting that nearly 40 of the 143 stakeholders pre-registered to provide public testimony carried the RNG Coalition’s message to the EPA.
At the hearing, RNG stakeholders advocated that EPA’s cellulosic biofuel calculation methodology in the final rule account for both increased cellulosic biofuel generation from projects currently producing fuel, and the projected production from 24 additional RNG projects nearing completion of construction that are planned to begin generating RIN credits under the RFS program later this year and throughout 2018.
“RNG has supplied 98% of the RFS’s cellulosic biofuel market since it received the D3 RIN designation in 2014,” says Ashley Patterson, vice president of government relations and public policy with Ameresco.