The RFS Power Coalition expressed support for legislation introduced on June 17 by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. The bill, S. 3986, requires the EPA to approve biofuels registration applications pending before the agency to participate in the Renewable Fuel Standard program. The bill also requires the EPA to take action on pathways deemed complete by the agency that have been pending for more than 180 days, and includes $2 million in funding to EPA to carry out the mandate.

“We strongly support this legislation, which will at long last require the EPA to include biogasto-electricity applications that have been pending for years,” said Patrick Serfass, executive director of American Biogas Council. “The pathway for biogas has been available since 2014 and yet the EPA has failed to process the applications submitted by farmers, wastewater treatment facilities and other business owners who have a right to generate RINs. We urge Congress to approve this bill as soon as possible.”

"Despite clear direction from Congress in 2007 and repeatedly since then, the EPA has failed to implement the electricity portion of the RFS, making it impossible for electricity producers like biomass power to generate RINs," said Carrie Annand, executive director of Biomass Power Association. "We are grateful to Sen. Shaheen and Sen. Thune for this bill, which will hold the EPA accountable for including electricity in the RFS."

Interior Appropriations bills for fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2019 both included report language urging the EPA to process electric RINs. Since 2017, more than 50 members of Congress from both parties have urged the EPA to act on electric RINs. Despite congressional attention to the issue—and despite its own 2014 rule enacting a pathway for biogas-to-electricity—the EPA has failed to process a single application from an electricity producer.