Ethanol Blog

Continued uncertainty in what the annual Renewable Volume Obligation will be has obligated parties buying Renewable Identification Numbers. They fear it would be increased and they would be caught short on the number of the compliance credits needed, industry sources said, adding RINs are less expensive than the actual biofuel.

"The prevailing take-away at the National Biodiesel Board conference (held this week) was RINs seem to be very cheap," a trader said this morning, with RINs used to show compliance under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

As of Jan. 22, D6 2014 and 2015 RINs, primarily satisfied with corn-based ethanol, traded at 70 cents, up 5.5 cents and 7.5 cents, respectively, on the week. D4 biomass-based diesel RINs are pegged at 72 cents for 2014 and 97.5 cents for 2015, both up 3 cents on the week.

The Environmental Protection Agency, the administrator of the RFS, said this week that the 2014 RVO would be finalized this spring, with no word on 2015's RVO. By statue, the RVO must be finalized by Nov. 30 of the previous year, with EPA now late with the demand mandates for both years.

Myke Feinman can be reached at myke.feinman@telventdtn.com.

(ES)

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