Last week the EPA sent its proposed rule on 2020 Required Volume Obligations (RVOs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final review. The proposal provides for modest increases in biofuel volumes. Under the RFS, conventional ethanol is capped at 15 billion gallons. Furthermore, the statute requires the biodiesel-specific RVO to be set 14 months in advance of the compliance year, so the 2.43 billion gallons for 2020 had already been set in November 2018 when the 2019 final volumes were issued for the other categories of fuel (reportedly, the biodiesel volume to be set in this rule for 2021 will stay at 2.43 billion gallons). Based on that extrapolation and leaks from the administration a...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.