The largest biofuel mandate in the world, and the programme that prices the barrel Canadian, European and Asian buyers compete for. It is also routinely misread, because almost every number published about it is denominated in a unit that is not a gallon.
Volumes shown are EPA final applicable volumes for 2026, in billions of RINs, including partial reallocation of exempted small-refinery volumes.
EPA sets an annual percentage standard on refiners and importers of gasoline and diesel. Each party multiplies that percentage by its own fuel volumes to arrive at a Renewable Volume Obligation, then discharges it by retiring Renewable Identification Numbers. The unit is not a gallon, and that single fact accounts for most of the confusion around the programme.
The standard is not one target but four, arranged as concentric circles. Each fuel earns a RIN with a D-code, and a RIN from an inner circle satisfies every circle outside it. That asymmetry is the economics of the whole programme.
Six features of the regulation that determine how the market actually behaves — and which are the ones most often missed when a project is sized against the programme.
One RIN is one ethanol-equivalent gallon. A physical gallon generates RINs in proportion to its energy content under equivalence values fixed in the regulation — ethanol 1.0, biodiesel 1.5, renewable diesel 1.7, butanol 1.3. Renewable natural gas is credited at 77,000 Btu per RIN.
A RIN from an inner circle satisfies every circle outside it. This is what gives D4 and D3 their optionality, and why the spread between D4 and D6 is the single most watched relationship in the market.
Because the obligations nest, biomass-based diesel covers its own line and also fills whatever the advanced circle cannot get elsewhere. The real pull sits above the stated diesel target — the gap is spillover, not the diesel line.
An exporter incurs an obligation equal to exported volume multiplied by the equivalence value, and must retire RINs within 30 days. A RIN cannot satisfy a US obligation once the fuel has left the country.
A RIN is valid in the year it is generated and the following year. Prior-year RINs may cover no more than 20% of an obligation, and a compliance deficit may be carried one year but not two consecutively.
Refineries below a size threshold may petition for exemption on hardship grounds. Exempted volumes, and whether EPA reallocates them into the standards, materially change the effective obligation on everyone else.
Where you stand under Canada Clean Fuel Regulations (CFR), what it costs, and which levers reduce the bill — mapped by the team.
Where the programme meets a specific barrel, a specific plant or a specific contract — that is the work. Six ways we support participants in the RFS.
EPA registration, pathway determination and the recordkeeping that survives an attest engagement. Getting the D-code right at registration is far cheaper than correcting it later.
Translating a percentage standard into your actual RVO, and modelling the RIN position that discharges it across D-codes, vintages and the 20% carry-forward limit.
Converting between physical volumes and RINs correctly across fuel types — the step where project models most often go wrong by a wide margin.
How a barrel positioned for the RFS interacts with Canada's CFR, California's LCFS and the other clean fuel programmes. Which combination pays best is specific to the barrel.
Rulemakings, waiver decisions, exemption petitions and litigation — tracked for what they do to your obligation, not as general news.
Annual compliance reports, attest engagement preparation and export RIN retirement, so the obligations land on time and in the right accounts.
Published analysis from the Climate Decode team on the RFS and the clean fuel markets it sits alongside.
Why the headline biodiesel mandate is not the number that sets the market — RINs, D-codes, the nesting rule and what happens at the border.
The Canadian federal programme — how its credit is defined, and why it does not travel to or from a RIN.
Seven programmes pricing the same barrel, each with its own unit, trajectory and clearing price.
Figures on this page are taken from EPA's published rules and data. EPA publishes RIN generation and transaction data rather than a settled price series, so any RIN price should carry the date and source it came from — the market can move materially in a single session.
No. RFS obligations are denominated in RINs, where one RIN is one ethanol-equivalent gallon. A physical gallon generates RINs in proportion to its energy content — renewable diesel at 1.7, biodiesel at 1.5, ethanol at 1.0. An obligation quoted as 9.07 billion therefore corresponds to well under 9.07 billion gallons of fuel, and comparing an RFS volume directly against a production statistic will mislead every time.
Every RIN carries a D-code identifying the fuel category that generated it — D3 cellulosic, D4 biomass-based diesel, D5 advanced, D6 conventional, D7 cellulosic diesel. Because the obligations nest, a D4 RIN satisfies the diesel, advanced and total targets at once while a D6 reaches only the total. That is the source of the price spread between them.
Refiners and importers of gasoline and diesel. EPA sets an annual percentage standard; each obligated party applies it to its own fuel volumes to calculate its Renewable Volume Obligation, then retires RINs to discharge it. The compliance period is the calendar year.
Exporters incur an obligation equal to the exported volume multiplied by the applicable equivalence value, and must retire RINs to cover it within 30 days of export. A RIN generated in the United States cannot satisfy a US obligation once the fuel has left the country.
Within limits. A RIN is valid in the year it is generated and the following year, and prior-year RINs may cover no more than 20% of an obligation. A compliance deficit may be carried forward one year, but not two consecutively.
They are separate programmes with separate units, and a credit created in one does not transfer to another. A single physical barrel can, however, be positioned against more than one programme depending on where it is produced and where it is consumed. Which combination pays best is specific to the barrel, the feedstock and the pathway — that is the kind of question our advisory work answers.
See how Climate Decode delivers end-to-end CFR support — from eligibility assessment and CI modelling through credit commercialisation and stackability analysis.