Some North American renewable natural gas (RNG) operators are expecting a more favorable market for selling environmental credits after federal biofuel volume requirements were updated.

Three of the largest domestic RNG operators said in their second quarter results that revamped rules issued in June by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may help them improve results going forward.

What has encouraged them is that the EPA finalized renewable volume obligations (RVO), which had impacted renewable identification number (RIN) pricing during 1Q2023. The RVO determines the amount of fuel that must be blended each year into transportation fuel to use environmental credits. The RVO for 2023 was increased to 0.84 ethanol gallon equivalents per RIN. It also was increased...