BIO Slams EPA on RVO Rule Delay
NEW YORK (DTN) -- The nearly one-year delay by the Environmental Protection Agency to issue its final rule on mandated renewable fuel volume requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard has led to higher greenhouse gas emissions, according to an industry group.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization, which supports RFS, said in a report the emissions that have occurred during the past year, when the rule has been delayed, is equal to putting 4.4 million cars on the road or more than 21 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
In November 2013, EPA proposed changes to mandated renewable fuel volumes under RFS for 2014 by reducing the use of biofuels in U.S. transportation compared to 2013 and to statute.
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Under that plan, EPA proposed reducing the mandate for 2014 from the statute requirement of 18.1 billion gallons to a 15.0 to 15.52 billion gallons range. The largest proposed cut in the 2014 RFS was for the D6 renewable fuel nested category from 14.4 billion gallons stated by statute to 13.0 billion gallons, the first reduction in this category.
A proposed adjustment to the 2014 volume requirement for D3 cellulosic biofuel from 17 million gallons to between 8 and 30 million gallons and a proposed range between 2.0 and 2.51 billion gallons for D5 advanced biofuels compared with statue volume of 2.2 billion gallons.
The D5 nested category includes D3 and D4 blending volume, with D4 representing biomass-based diesel. The EPA proposal left unchanged at 1.28 billion gallons this year's D4 volume mandate, which is above the statute's 1.0 billion gallon requirement.
Under the statute, the final RVO rule was supposed to be released last November, but the Obama administration has not finalized the rule yet as of today, leaving obligated parties with the proposed reduction waiting and uncertain.
EPA submitted the proposal to the Office of Management and Budget last month on Aug. 22. Procedurally, the OMB has 30 to 90 days to review the proposal before letting EPA to release it to the industry.
In its report, Biotechnology Industry Organization or BIO argued that the U.S. used 2 billion gallons of gasoline more than was expected in 2013 and 2014 while diesel consumption in 2014 is expected to be 500 million gallons more than expected.
BIO didn't provide a clear source of the data behind its fuel demand analysis, but argued the projected demand should be enough reason for EPA to raise rather than lower its proposed volume requirements under RFS.
(BM/AG)
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