Sometime in the next six to eight weeks, the EPA will propose the Required Volume Obligations (RVOs) for 2020 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The statutory volumes will then be prescribed for only the two following years (2021 and 2022), and the EPA will thereafter have greater discretion in setting the biofuel blending rates. Both the biofuels and petroleum industries see such administrative uncertainty as a risk and agree that there should be statutory direction for the RFS after 2022. In a congressional hearing last week, EPA Administrator Wheeler told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that given that looming uncertainty, he would welcome legislation to better guide biofuel policy. His comment was in response to a questio...
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.