NBB Upset by EPA's 2019 RVO Targets

Brian L Milne
By  Brian L. Milne , DTN Refined Fuels Editor

NEW YORK (DTN) -- The National Biodiesel Board said they are disappointed with the final rule under the Renewable Fuel Standard issued Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA maintained a 2.1 billion gallon volume requirement for biomass-based diesel fuel for 2019, the same mandate for 2018, and in line with its July proposal. Some biodiesel industry leaders had called for higher volume.

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"Administrator Pruitt has disappointed the biodiesel industry for failing to respond to our repeated calls for growth," NBB said in a statement. "These flat volumes will harm Americans across several job-creating sectors."

The federal agency also set the 2018 total renewable fuel volume requirement at 19.29 billion gallons, of which 4.29 billion gallon will be advanced biofuel, including 288 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel.

That leaves a 15 billion gallon requirement for conventional renewable fuels, consistent with the levels envisioned by Congress in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.

The renewable nested category in the RFS program can be satisfied with conventional biofuels such as corn-based ethanol.

The 2018 total RFS volume finalized Thursday represents a minor increase of 10 million gallons over the 2017 standards, and a modest increase of 50 million gallons over the 2018 volumes originally proposed by EPA in July.

(BE)

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Brian Milne