EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says he’s open to talks on pulling marine fuel more fully into the Renewable Fuel Standard.

“It’s certainly a conversation that I’m willing to have internally within the agency, with other agencies, with Congress and with the community,” Zeldin says in response to a question during Agri-Pulse Newsmakers. 

The EPA chief added that while the topic hasn’t come up much, he’ll now be inquiring about it at the agency.

“I want to hear all of the ideas, all of the asks,” Zeldin said about his approach to his job in general. “I don't want people to give me what's number one on their list, or the top three on their list. I want everything.”

At a National Maritime Week forum in Washington on May 21, speakers stressed the need to broaden the federal RFS for marine fuels to better encourage growth of renewable transportation fuel for ships.

Under current RFS rules, credits intended to incentivize biofuel use, known as RINs, aren’t applicable to ocean-going vessels. 

The RFS doesn't recognize fuel used in ocean-going vessels with so-called category 3 engines, which are powered by diesel and used to power tankers and container ships, as transportation fuel. That means there's no value to the RINs generated from such biofuels. The RFS does, though, recognize biofuels used in smaller marine craft, like ferries.

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“If the law were changed to integrate maritime fuel into the RFS, fuel producers and blenders could generate and sell RINs to obligated parties, subsidizing the higher production cost of biofuels,” Bracewell’s Timothy Urban and Kimberly Pinter said in an online post last month.

“This would allow them to offer competitive pricing to maritime shippers, increasing demand and incentivizing low-carbon maritime fuel production,” said Urban, who leads tax policy at the law and government relations firm, and Pinter, senior counsel.  

Congressional attention to the issue is increasing. Last year, Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, introduced a bill to allow companies to keep RIN credits for fuel used in ocean-going vessels.

Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, and John Garamendi, D-Calif., have companion legislation in the U.S. House.

Other highlights of Zeldin’s comments on Newsmakers:

  • Congressional passage of year-round E15, or higher ethanol fuel blends, would increase the bandwidth of farm state lawmakers to focus on other important matters 
  • The agency is on track to meet future RFS deadlines
  • EPA plans on "moving forward” with the discounted RIN policy for foreign biofuel feedstocks starting in 2028
  • EPA's backlog of regulatory actions related to pesticides has declined to around 8,000 from more than 14,500 it inherited from the Biden administration.
  • EPA staff are reviewing the safety of glyphosate and will follow the science, wherever it takes them.
  • A final waters of the U.S. rule will be released as soon as possible, but it’s important to get it right and make it as “legally durable as possible.” 

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