Reflecting On OPIS RFS, RINs and Biofuels Forum 2021

On this episode of Weaver: Beyond The Numbers, Host Tyler Kern talked with Sandra Dunphy, Director Energy Compliance Services, and Greg Staiti, Partner Energy Compliance Services. Dunphy and Staiti recently attended the Opis RFS, RINs & Biofuels Forum in Chicago.

Dunphy has been with Weaver for almost 11 years, and she leads the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) team. She and her team help companies navigate the regulations and how they work. As the first conference speaker this year, she gave an overview of the conference’s agenda.

 But, the big news out of this year’s conference was the delay in the EPA’s regulation announcement.

“The timing of the conference this year was quite interesting,” Dunphy noted. “We have annual objectives that EPA publishes each year of the period of the regulations. We have now been waiting for an announcement related to 2021 about the standards the industry to try to meet.”

These standards are called Renewable Volume Obligations. Usually, they have them by the end of November before the compliance year, which means they should have had them by November 2020.

“Ironically, in the conference last year, we said we were waiting for the EPA’s announcement, and here we are a year later still waiting for that announcement,” Dunphy said.

Staiti has been with Weaver since 2012. He oversees the consulting part of the practice within Weaver’s Energy Consulting Services. They focus on the transportation fuels regulation that affects all the fuels that go into vehicles. His presentation focused on feedstocks and other issues that are an obstacle under current RFS regulations.

“Both of our presentations were very heavy on the regulatory framework for renewable fuels,” Staiti said. “But, mine, in particular, focused on some of the challenges within the existing regulatory structure that could inhibit the expansion of opportunities for renewable fuels and their associated feedstocks, under the current regulations.”