New U.S. Environmental Protection Agency goals call for an all-time high volume of biofuels to be blended into gasoline and diesel, the agency said in a Friday news release following President Donald Trump’s announcement at the White House.
The EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard for 2026 and 2027 will set the volume of biofuels at the highest level in the program’s 20 years, the agency said in a statement released shortly after Trump touted the move in a speech to farmers gathered at the White House South Lawn.
The president framed the new standards as a move away from regulations based on radical environmentalism.
“What they’ve done to you — and the country, what they’ve done to the country — is just incredible,” he told the farmers. “The environmentalists, I mean, they are terrorists. They were terrorists.”
Trump added that the standards will generate over $10 billion of rural economic benefit in rural areas and create an estimated 100,000 jobs. Biofuels are primarily produced from corn and soybean crops, with corn-derived ethanol by far the most common biofuel in the country.
Trump and top administration officials said the new standards would help provide more domestic energy sources. The standards would reduce the demand for foreign oil by approximately 300,000 barrels per day, the EPA release said.
“For 20 years, this program has diversified our nation’s energy supply and advanced American energy independence,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in the release. “EPA is proud to deliver on this mission and to do so at historic levels.”
The standards will require a roughly 60% increase in biofuel and renewable diesel production over 2025 levels, the EPA estimated. That production would translate directly to a major economic boost for farmers, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said.
“With President Trump and Administrator Zeldin’s leadership, these historically high volumes are expected to create a $3 to $4 billion dollar increase in net farm income,” she said in the EPA release.
While biofuels groups commended the new standards, the Fueling American Jobs Coalition, an advocacy group that represents independent oil refiners, said the goals were “too aggressive” and did not reflect what could realistically be blended into transportation fuels.
“Unfortunately, with today’s announcement, it’s clear that our efforts to advocate for achievable volumes were ignored, and this will now likely result in even higher prices at the pump for consumers,” the group said.
