This week the Environmental Protection Agency released the 2017 volume obligations under the renewable fuel standard. The agency brought the levels back up to the statutory level of 15 billion gallons for corn ethanol. Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw says he’s pleased by the decision as it will benefit Iowa’s ethanol producers, farmers, consumers and the environment.

He says three years ago the EPA veered off course with the Renewable Fuels Standard but now have corrected that.

Shaw says they would have liked to have seen the EPA set the biomass biodiesel levels higher than they did.

The EPA put the biomass based diesel volumes at 2.1 billion gallons for 2018 which represents a 100 million gallon increase from 2017.