Americans treat their pets like family, and one of the most basic ways we show it is by filling their bowls with complete, balanced, nutritious food. However, well‑intentioned federal energy policies are threatening to drive up costs, making the simple act of caring for cats and dogs more expensive for families, and putting pressure on U.S. pet food manufacturers.
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to finalize the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2026 and 2027—a proposal that could set the nation’s biofuel blending rates at all-time highs, while simultaneously restricting imported inputs that help make the fuels. This policy proposal would sharply increase demand for animal fats—an essential ingredient in pet food, and a growing feedstock for biodiesel—by pushing more domestic food-grade fats into transportation fuel for trucks and airplanes.
Without modest reform, the rule risks resulting in higher prices in the nation’s pet food aisles, limiting consumer choice, and straining U.S. manufacturers. The EPA should add a few basic guardrails as it finalizes renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for biomass-based diesel.
U.S. pet food makers depend on food-grade fats, such as poultry fat and beef tallow, for energy density, palatability, and skin and coat health—benefits that vegetable oils or carbohydrates can’t replicate, especially in specialty and medicated diets. While biofuel producers can turn to feedstocks like soybean oil, vegetable oils, or used cooking oil, pet food manufacturers adhere to stringent safety standards that restrict substitutions, including imported fats.
A policy built for “waste” is distorting a high‑value domestic market. EPA historically treated animal fats as waste, enabling biofuel producers to claim Renewable Identification Numbers. But, as more food-grade fats flow into fuel, input costs for pet food have surged. Fats and oils prices rose more than 24% at their peak from 2021–2023, and pet food inflation reached about 15%, leaving prices over 20% higher than pre‑pandemic levels.
Policymakers once assumed diverting feedstocks into fuel wouldn’t disrupt existing markets, but that assumption no longer holds. Domestic animal fat production has been essentially flat—up only about 1.5% from 2018 to 2023—while renewable diesel demand has surged. USDA data shows fuel-sector use rising roughly 350% from 2021/22 to 2023/24, from 2.1 billion to over 7.2 billion pounds. USDA now calls the resulting shift in fats and oils markets “structural,” driven by biofuel demand.
EPA’s proposed 2026–2027 rule would tighten this pressure further. If current feedstock patterns hold, meeting new volume obligations would require billions more pounds of animal fats, just as EPA considers limits on imported feedstocks—pushing demand onto scarce domestic supplies. Fuel producers, aided by RIN values and tax credits, can outbid other users. Pet food makers cannot do that—nor can they switch to vegetable oils without harming nutrition or increasing consumer costs.
EPA has the discretion to fix this challenge. The Clean Air Act allows EPA to determine the “appropriate number of credits,” and the RFS already differentiates RINs by feedstock. Nothing requires issuing full credits for animal fats when doing so distorts food and agricultural markets.
A balanced path forward includes placing limits on specific feedstocks, such as animal fats, where supply is tight. EPA already differentiates credits by feedstock and origin; doing so here would protect food‑grade supplies without disrupting fuel markets. Next, removing all restrictions on imported feedstocks, which would help meet volume targets without over‑relying on finite domestic fats. Finally, recognizing statutory authority to prevent commodity‑market distortion. EPA is required to consider impacts on food and agricultural markets—impacts that are now clear and growing.
The bottom line: We don’t have to choose between clean energy and affordable, nutritious pet food. EPA can support renewable fuels while protecting consumers, pet health, and U.S. manufacturing. A few modest adjustments would stabilize critical supply chains, lower costs for families, and preserve the RFS’s environmental integrity.
Atalie Ebersole is vice president of government relations for the Pet Food Institute.