Responsive Regulation and Resiliency: The Renewable Fuel Standard and Advanced Biofuels

Abstract

Responsive regulation embodies a multiple stakeholder approach to creating flexible choices for regulatory regimes, ranging from the less interventionist form of self-regulation to more stringent, networked regulation. This Article addresses emerging approaches to responsive regulation, drawing examples from the current U.S. regulatory landscape. This landscape includes the Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”) and other futures markets. The RFS has not only guaranteed a marketplace for biofuels in the United States, but also catalyzed the rapid scale-up of biofuel use globally. Although the volatility of the market economy and disruption of emerging technologies complicate the implementation and enforcement of the national biofuel mandate, biofuels remain the most viable way to bring about a clean energy future. Evidence suggests that the U.S. government—which has increased its biofuel mandate to 19.28 billion gallons in 2017, more than a six percent increase from 2016 levels—agrees. This fact is evidence of Big Corn’s silent revolution, which it has achieved at the expense of Big Oil, largely through responsive regulation and the rise of advanced biofuels.

Keywords: biofuels, natural resources, Renewable Fuel Standard, advanced biofuels, Big Corn, sustainable development, renewable energy, energy law