Legislation introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives on July 11 aims to make it easier for obligated parties to comply with their Renewable Fuel Standard renewable blending obligations (RVOs) by directing the U.S. EPA to create a conventional biofuel waiver credit program and setting a price limit on those credits.

The bill, titled the Safeguarding Domestic Energy Production & Independence Act, was introduced by U.S. Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Bob Casey, D-Penn., and by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn.; Donald Norcross, D-N.J.; Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Penn.; and Brendan Boyle, D-Penn.

Under the legislation, the EPA is directed to make available for sale renewable fuel credits to any person with a RVO under the RFS. These credits would be capped at 20 cents per credit, adjusted for inflation. The credits could be used in place of D6 renewable fuel renewable identification numbers (RINs) to meet RFS RVOs. The credits issued by the EPA could only be used to comply with RVOs for the year in which the credit was sold and could not be resold or transferred to another person. The credits could be used only in place of D6 RINs. They could not be used to fulfill cellulosic, biomass-based diesel or advanced biofuel RVOs, which are met by D3, D4, D5 and D7 RINs.

The bill also specifies how revenues from the sale of these credits would be allocated. One-third of those revenues would be made available to the EPA to provide grants and technical assistance to any person with an RVO and partners of those persons for purposes of supporting investments in advanced biofuels. Similarly, one-third of revenue would be made available to the USDA to provide financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers for voluntary investments in alternative crops and diversified cropping systems. The remaining one-third of revenues would be deposited a habitat and wildlife restoration fund established by the legislation. Those funds would be made available to the U.S. Department of the Interior to support existing program that aim to protect, conserve or restore the types of habitat and wildlife that are most impacted by the conversion of native habitat to crop production, including grasslands, wetlands, forests, and adjacent waterways in areas that have experienced significant expansion of corn and soy production since 2007.

A full copy of the bill is available on Coons’ website.