July D6 RINs Up 4.1%

STREATOR, Ill. (DTN) -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday reported 1.268 billion D6 Renewable Identification Numbers were generated in July, up 4.1% from the 1.218 billion D6 RINs generated in June.

For the first seven months of the year, 8.305 billion D6 RINs were generated.

Domestic production and imports generating D6 RINs, which is primarily corn-based ethanol, was 1.255 billion gallons in July, up from 1.207 billion in June. Production for the first seven months totaled 8.229 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 July was 182.353 million gallons, up from the 153.907 million gallons in June. For the year so far, a total of 962.531 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 D4 RINs generated in July were 281.062 million, up from 237.814 million in June. Total D4 RINs generated in the first seven months of 2014 were 1.491 billion.

Advanced biofuel qualifying for D5 RIN generation in July was 13.905 million gallons, down from 16.975 million gallons in June. For the year, 103.495 million D5 gallons were produced. Total D5 RINs generated for July was 15.406 million compared to 17.984 million the month prior. For the first seven months, 110.538 million D5 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 4,156 gallons of cellulosic biofuel under the D3 category were produced in July following no output in June, generating 4,156 D3 RINs for the month. A total of 62,187 gallons of cellulosic biofuel were produced in the first seven months of 2014, generating 79,910 D3 RINs.

There were 1,248 gallons of cellulosic diesel produced in July which fall under the D7 nested category, netting 1,248 RINs. Total D7 gallons produced in 2014 are 12,670 generating 9,022 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 billion 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 million 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 submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget Aug. 22, placing the final volumes publication date no earlier than Sept. 22, more than nine months late by statute.

(BM/AG)

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