June D6 RINs Down 1.2%

STREATOR, Ill. (DTN) -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday reported 1.207 billion D6 Renewable Identification Numbers were generated in June, down 1.2% from the 1.222 billion D6 RINs generated in May.

For the first half of the year, 7.026 billion D6 RINs were generated.

Domestic production and imports generating D6 RINs, which is primarily corn-based ethanol, was 1.199 billion gallons in June, down from 1.213 billion in May. Production for the first six months totaled 6.966 billion gallons.

D6 RINs are equal to one gallon of renewable fuel produced or imported.

Biomass-based diesel D4 category output from domestic production and imports in June was 153.692 million gallons, up from the 149.271 million gallons in May. For the year so far, a total of 779.895 million gallons were produced. Qualifying renewables under the D4 category include renewable diesel and biodiesel production. Each gallon is worth 1.5 D4 RINs. Total RINs generated in June were 237.493 million, up from 230.747 million in May. Total D4 RINs generated in the first half of 2014 were 1.210 billion.

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Advanced biofuel qualifying for D5 RIN generation in June was 16.847 million gallons, down from 26.527 million gallons in May. For the year, 89.463 million D5 gallons were produced. Total D5 RINs generated for June was 17.856 million compared to 27.528 million the month prior. For the first six months, 95.003 million D6 RINs were generated.

In the advanced renewable fuel category, one gallon of sugar-based ethanol is equivalent to one D5 RIN, while one gallon of biodiesel, which also qualifies as an advanced biofuel, is equal to 1.5 D5 RINs. Other advanced biofuels included cellulosic biofuel and cellulosic diesel.

EPA reported no gallons of cellulosic biofuel under the D3 category were produced in June following no output in May, generating no D3 RINs for a second month. A total of 58,031 gallons of cellulosic biofuel were produced in the first six months of 2014, generating 72,754 D3 RINs.

There were zero gallons of cellulosic diesel produced in June which fall under the D7 nested category, netting no RINs. Total D7 gallons produced in 2014 total 7,774 generating 11,422 D7 RINs.

RINs are the credits used by obligated parties -- refiners, blenders and importers -- to show compliance in fulfilling their annual Renewable Volume Obligation under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The RFS mandate is scheduled to increase each year until 2022, but the 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, which would be the first reduction in this category. The EPA also proposed an adjustment to this year's volume requirement for D3 cellulosic biofuel from 17 million gallons to between 8 and 30 million gallons and proposed a 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.

The EPA issued proposed volumes for 2014 on Nov. 15, 2013. This year's mandate was expected to be finalized June 20, but the EPA missed its own deadline saying it would issue the final mandate "as soon as possible."

(BM/AG)

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