EPA pushes through 2013 renewable fuel requirements

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has held its ground on the federal mandate for using renewable motor fuels, which increases the requirement for next-generation fuel.
 
The agency plans to require U.S. refiners and fuel importers to use 16.55 billion gallons of renewable fuel during 2013, an increase of 1.3 billion gallons from last year. As in previous years, the lion’s share of that mandate will likely be met with ethanol made from corn from the Midwest. This time, the agency is also proposing to raise the requirement for advanced renewable fuels made from soybeans, imported sugarcane ethanol from Brazil, and “cellulosic” fuels made from inedible parts of plants, such as corn stalks and wood chips. Part of this proposal would have a negative impact on U.S. corn ethanol producers who had earlier asked the EPA to require fewer gallons of “advanced” fuel so as to limit imports of sugarcane ethanol from Brazil. The EPA did not consider those requests and could “open the door even wider to imports,” said the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), a U.S. ethanol trade group.
 
On the other hand, Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Ethanol Council, a group of cellulosic fuel producers, said the EPA got “the right number” and provided “advanced biofuel investors and innovators with a predictable and durable path forward.”
 
In 2012, EPA required refiners to buy 8 million gallons of cellulosic fuel, but the industry produced only about 20,000 gallons that could count toward the requirement. The American Petroleum Institute, an oil industry trade group, won a lawsuit earlier this month throwing out last year’s cellulosic fuel requirement. The institute criticized EPA’s proposal to require even more cellulosic fuel this year. “The promised production [of cellulosic fuel] hasn’t happened,” said Bob Greco, the institute’s downstream group director. “With this announcement, EPA has proven yet again that its renewable fuels program is unworkable and must be scrapped.”
 
The EPA will take public comments for 45 days from issuance of the proposal before finalizing the 2013 renewable fuel requirement. The EPA also released a separate draft plan designed to prevent fraud in the market for tradable credits that companies use to prove they are meeting the renewable fuel mandate. The National Biodiesel Board, a trade group, said the EPA fraud plan “appears to be another positive step” toward solving that problem. (February 1, 2013)