EPA Grants RFS Exemptions, USDA Introduces New Rancher Intiative

The Environmental Protection Agency is granting 1.76 billion gallons worth of exemptions from the 2025 Renewable Fuel Standard, but those gallons could eventually be put back into the biofuels market. The agency announced it had approved 18 full small refinery exemptions and 11 partial exemptions covering 50% of their required volumes. Scott Irwin, University of Illinois agricultural economist, says this is good news for ag and biofuels.

“While the headline number on the additional volume of the small refinery exemptions is large, the EPA also announced that rulemaking by the end of October that will what's called reallocate 100% of the extra volumes of RINs that would be released by those SREs to 2026 and 27 obligations. So in other words, it's basically a wash.”

Under a new plan called the Ranchers First Initiative, USDA will include a new insurance option allowing ranchers to protect the economic value of keeping heifers as breeding stock for up to two years. USDA will also expand disaster assistance on certain conservation acres, increase support for small and regional beef processors, and prioritize American beef in federal purchasing.