By Stephanie Kelly

NEW YORK (Reuters] – According to a Notice posted by the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had sent a regulation on U.S. energy blending mandates to President Obama for final review.

Both the biofuel and oil industries have long waited eagerly for the EPA’s decision to implement the mandates. They have previously been at odds about the requirements. The EPA’s action is timely as gas prices rise in America and companies are recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

In December, the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, (RFS) administrator, the EPA released a proposal rule on the blending volumes. It covers the years 2020-2021, and 2022.

It’s not clear if the volume sent is at the same level of the December proposal. According to the notice, the OMB received the ruling on Friday.

The EPA proposed a rule for December that would retroactively establish 2020 total renewable fuel volumes at 17.13 million gallons. This was a decrease from the 20.09 Billion Gallons rule that had been in place for 2020.

Volumes were determined at 18.52 million gallons by 2021 and 20.77 trillion gallons by 2022.

While the 2020 and 2021 figures represent a decline from the 2019 figure, when the EPA mandated refiners that blend 19.92 trillion gallons biofuels in America’s fuel mixture, the 2022 proposal represents an increase.

Reuters reports that last week, the EPA had sent the rule to Washington for its final review.