More than two dozen representatives from renewable natural gas (RNG) industry producers, distributors and stakeholders across America spoke at the public hearing in Michigan to provide feedback on 2020 biofuel volumes proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.
鈥淭he RNG Coalition is the RNG industry,鈥� said David Cox, co-founder and Director of Operations for the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition), at the hearing. 鈥淲e have built over 100 facilities that are turning waste into biofuel, and we are currently, today, moving our nation鈥檚 packages, our food and our freight.鈥�
Comments from RNG stakeholders impressed the importance of EPA setting a 2020 cellulosic biofuel volume of at least 650 million gallons to incorporate all RNG produced and available next year, including new volumes from more than 30 production sites currently being built and millions of stranded gallons as a result of small refinery exemptions (SREs) granted by EPA.
鈥淭he 2020 [volume] must fully reflect the continued growth of the RNG industry as we have demonstrated, account for any carry over RINs and remove the uncertainty around the small refinery exemptions,鈥� said Sheila Miller of Aria Energy, headquartered just down the highway from today鈥檚 hearing in Michigan. 鈥淧olicy and regulatory certainty is vital to allow companies like Aria to attract the capital investment required to continue developing RNG projects.鈥�
鈥淭he RFS has been a great tool to help American small businesses like ours participate in recovering vast amounts of energy from our nation鈥檚 waste, turning a societal liability into an energy asset,鈥� said Luke Morrow, President of Texas-based family company Morrow Renewables. 鈥淲hen [EPA] refuse[s] to account for our actual growth rates, grants SREs that destroy almost 10-percent of our market without reallocation, and fail to account for carry forward volumes in the current RVO鈥any will lose all they have invested, and hard-working Americans will lose high paying technical jobs.鈥�
鈥淎meresco has invested approximately $80 million in our existing [sites], and our new facilities are requiring approximately $120 million in investment,鈥� said Jeff Stander, Senior Project Developer for the Massachusetts-based company. 鈥淲e are proud to promote the success and advances of RNG, and we intend to continue supporting this exciting sustainable technology.鈥�