(NAFB) – Legislators in Washington, D.C., this week urged the Environmental Protection Agency to prioritize the Renewable Fuel Standard by maintaining the blending requirements for 2022.

The lawmakers also urged the EPA to deny all pending Small Refinery Exemptions, eliminate proposed retroactive cuts to the renewable volume obligations and set the 2021 RFS volumes at statutory levels. Led by Senators Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, the lawmakers made the request in a letter to the EPA.

Following the requests by the lawmakers, the letter says, “the EPA can quickly restore integrity, stability, and growth to the RFS and the U.S. biofuel sector.”

Many of the letter co-signers are supporters of the Defend the Blend Act, introduced in the Senate by Grassley and Klobuchar. The legislation would prohibit the EPA from retroactively reducing RVO levels once the annual rule is finalized, also supported by biofuels groups, including Growth Energy.