Our renewable fuels rules are stuck in the past

The Environmental Protection Agency recently released its renewable fuel rules for 2017. Private energy companies will be required to produce at least 18 billion gallons of renewables next year, over half a billion more than this year.

That’s a step in the wrong direction. The EPA’s renewable policies are badly broken and outdated. This backward looking mandate is failing to meet its goals while driving up everyday costs for working families. It needs to be reformed.

The new renewable production target is housed under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. The RFS was created in 2005 as part of...