An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help

How does the "active management" requirement in the definition of renewable biomass apply to land that changes status in the future?

In RFS2, EPA has interpreted the EISA requirement that existing agricultural land be "cleared or cultivated at any time prior to [December 19, 2007] and actively managed or fallow and nonforested" to apply to land that existed as such on December 19, 2007.

As a result, land meeting the existing agricultural land definition on December 19, 2007 will continue to meet the definition indefinitely, regardless of whether it is reforested and subsequently deforested in the future. Please see preamble section II.B.4.a. for further discussion of this issue.