New York | Reuters—A U.S. and biofuel coalition recommended that the Environmental Protection Agency propose federal mandates for biomass diesel blending for 2026 at 5.25 billion gallons, which would be a significant increase from previous mandates, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The coalition also recommended total federal biofuel blending mandates for 2026 at 25 billion gallons, the sources said. The coalition, led by the American Petroleum Institute, a top U.S. oil trade group, presented the figures to the EPA in a meeting last week.
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While the recommendations were for one year of mandates, the EPA is expected to release a proposal that covers both 2026 and 2027, Reuters previously reported.
API declined to comment on specific numbers, while the EPA did not respond to a request for comment.
The coalition’s suggestion of 5.25 billion gallons for biomass-based diesel mandates was slightly lower than the range of 5.5 billion to 5.75 billion gallons considered ahead of the meeting and previously reported by Reuters.
Big Oil and the Farm Belt’s biofuel makers are traditional competitors in the multibillion-dollar U.S. gasoline market, but have come together to form a consensus at the request of the White House in recent months in hopes of avoiding the type of clashes that defined the first Trump administration.
The new 5.25 billion-gallon figure from the API-led coalition is in line with a number recommended to the EPA by Clean Fuels Alliance America – a U.S. biodiesel trade group – along with farm and feedstock groups.
In a mid-March letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, that coalition said EPA’s previous mandates failed to support the growth of the advanced biofuel industry and undercut the market.
The EPA set biomass-based diesel mandates for the 2025 compliance year at 3.35 billion gallons.
Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, oil refiners must blend billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation’s fuel mix, or buy tradable credits from those that do.
