The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on January 21, 2025, the availability of a final document entitled “Biofuels and the Environment: Third Triennial Report to Congress” (Third Report). 90 Fed. Reg. 7135. The document was prepared by EPA’s Offices of Research and Development (ORD) and Air and Radiation (OAR), in consultation with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE). The Third Report builds on the first and second triennial reports, released in 2011 and 2018, respectively. According to EPA, it reinforces the broad conclusions from those reports on biofuels in general and further evaluates the attribution of those effects to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program more specifically. The Third Report updates the previous assessments of the environmental impacts of the RFS Program and includes new analyses to separate better the effects of the RFS Program from the broader set of factors influencing biofuels. According to EPA, in the first two reports, it could not separate the effects of the RFS Program from the impact of other factors (e.g., market or other policy effects). The Third Report includes an “attribution analysis” that better separates the effects of the RFS Program from other factors that affect biofuels production and consumption in the United States. The Third Report concludes that the RFS Program had a modest positive effect on biofuel production and consumption and thus had a modest negative effect on the environment. EPA states that these endpoints include air and water quality, water quantity, ecosystem health and biodiversity, soil quality, invasive species, and international impacts. The impacts of the RFS Program overlap with the more significant effects of biofuels as an industry.
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