The EPA proposed last year the inclusion of EVs into the RFS, in what would have been a major overhaul of an often contentious law that mandates that oil refiners must blend billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation’s fuel mix, or buy tradable credits from those that do.
Most credits generated under the RFS are for blending liquid fuels such as corn-based ethanol into gasoline. Adding credits for power generated from renewable gas and then used for charging EVs would take the program in a new direction.
In last year’s proposal, the EPA foresaw EV manufacturers could generate as many as 600 million credits in 2024 and 1.2 billion of them by 2025. Those estimates were included within the cellulosic credit pool in the proposal.
However, the EPA will remove those estimated volumes from a final rule that the agency is expected to release by June 14, the three sources said.
The EV plan represented the largest growth in the cellulosic credit pool in the RFS program history, roughly doubling the credits generated from 720 million this year to 2.13 billion by 2025, according to the proposal.
Those in the electric vehicle and renewable natural gas industries were hopeful that even with a delay, an EV program could still be passed by the end of the year.
