Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published two announcements in the Federal Register regarding an extension of the comment period for the proposed Renewables Enhancement and Growth Support (REGS) rule and the proposed denial of petitions for the rulemaking to change the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Point of Obligation.

On December 9, 2016, ten biodiesel and agricultural industry stakeholders, including the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, American Soybean Association, and the Corn Refiners Association, sent EPA a joint request for additional time to evaluate the proposed changes to the REGS rule.  In a December 27, 2016, Federal Register notice, EPA stated that the deadline for written comments would be extended due to the significant number of proposed revisions.  Comments on the proposed rule are now due by February 16, 2017.

On November 22, 2016, EPA published a proposed denial of petitions requesting a rulemaking process to reconsider the point of obligation under the RFS program.  After receiving a request from the Small Retailers Coalition for additional time to prepare comments, EPA extended the deadline for written comments.  Comments are now due by February 22, 2017.