EPA delivers proposed rule to streamline fuel regulations to OMB

The U.S. EPA on Jan. 27 submitted a proposed rule to streamline fuels regulations to the White House Office of Management and Budget. OMB review marks a final step before a proposed rule is released for public comment.

According to a summary published by the OMB, the proposed rule aims to streamline and modernize EPA’s existing fuels regulations under 40 CFR part 80. “The purpose of this effort is to update EPA’s existing gasoline, diesel and other fuels regulations to help reduce compliance costs for industry as well as EPA, while improving overall compliance assurance and maintaining environmental performance,” the summary states. “In this action, EPA will streamline existing fuels regulations by deleting expired provisions, eliminating redundant compliance provisions (e.g., duplicative registration requirements that are required by every EPA fuels program), and removing out-of-date requirements, to replace them with a single set of provisions and definitions that will apply across all gasoline, diesel, and other fuels programs currently under 40 CFP part 80.”

Regulations contained under 40 CFR part 80 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations includes environmental regulations related to gasoline and diesel, including the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The EPA first indicated plans to complete a rulemaking to streamline its fuels regulations in the Fall 2017 United Agenda. The agency held a stakeholder workshop related to the rulemaking in May 2018. Several representatives of the biofuels industry participated in that event. The EPA has since updated a discussion draft of the regulations three times, most recently in December 2019.

Additional information is available on the OMB website.