Cellulosic biofuel mandate update

The AFPM has issued an update on its December 31^st 2012 news release on the association’s petition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to waive the 2012 cellulosic biofuel mandate due to the biofuel industry’s repeated failure to produce the cellulosic biofuel needed to meet the government mandate.

Previous statement

On January 9^th 2012, EPA announced the applicable volumetric requirements for various renewable fuels under the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) and established the 2012 regulatory requirement for cellulosic biofuel at 10.45 million ethanol equivalent gallons. In announcing the petition, AFPM relied upon EPA’s most recent data reported through October 2012. Available information indicated just 20 069 gallons of cellulosic biofuel annually produced, all of which was exported generating no Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), or credits for refiners to use to comply with the federal biofuel mandate. Citing the lack of domestic supply, AFPM President Charles T. Drevna called EPA’s timeline for introducing cellulosic biofuel into the fuel supply market as ‘ambitions’ and ‘unrealistic’.

Statement update

On 11^th January, EPA updated its data and announced that in November 2012 the biofuel industry produced an addition 1741 ethanol equivalent gallons of cellulosic diesel fuel. In response to this news, Drevna issued the following statement:

‘I stand corrected. November’s data reporting that the biofuel industry produced 1741 ethanol equivalent gallons of cellulosic diesel shows excellent progress toward complying with the EPA’s 2012 mandate of 10.45 million ethanol equivalent gallons of cellulosic biofuel. Six thousand additional months at this production level and the country will finally achieve EPA’s 2012 mandated volumes,’ Drevna said.

Adapted from press release by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/14012013/cellulosic_biofuel_mandate_update_290/