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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US Environmental Protection Agency has raised its annual blend mandate for advanced biofuels by 15 percent in 2019, while maintaining demand for conventional biofuels such as corn-based ethanol, according to a report. agency document accessed Thursday by Reuters.
The mandate includes 4.92 billion gallons of advanced biofuels that can be manufactured from plant and animal waste, a figure that emerges from the EPA's initial proposal of 4.88 billion in June and greater than 4.29 billion. billion that had been set for 2018, according to the document.
Conventional biofuel requirements, for their part, remain at 15 billion gallons for 2019, at the same level as those of 2018, and identical to those proposed by the agency in June.
The EPA is required to formally announce the biofuel mandate figures, which are closely monitored by the corn and oil competing industries, by Friday.
Under the US Renewable Fuels Standard, adopted for the first time in 2005, petroleum refiners are required to blend a certain amount of EPA-determined biofuels annually into their fuel or to earn credits. mixing with those who do it.
The policy has helped farmers by creating a huge market for ethanol and other biofuels, but oil refiners say compliance can cost them a fortune.
The new figures confirm that the agency rejected maize industry's requests to reassign biofuel blending obligations previously lifted under the Small Refinery Exemption Program, which has been significantly expanded under the President Donald Trump's administration.
Small refineries can be exempted from the RFS if they prove that their compliance would cause them financial difficulties.
The mighty corn lobby and US Department of Agriculture officials have been complaining for months that the extension of the waiver program since Trump took office threatens the demand for ethanol.
An EPA official told Reuters earlier this week that the decision not to reallocate canceled volumes was mainly due to timing.
"The main reason we're not reallocating this rule is because we do not know what the volume of small refinery exemptions (SREs) will be for 2019 and we will not know about it later in 2019, early 2020 is guessing, and we do not make regulations by guessing here, "said the manager.
The Trump administration has also temporarily suspended the processing of pending waiver requests as the EPA and the Department of Energy review the rating system used to assess them, Reuters sources told reporters.
However, the EPA should still decide on applications that are running before the March 31st compliance deadline for the 2018 calendar year.
Trump sought to please the corn farmers' lobby with a different modification of the US biofuels policy: in October, he asked the EPA to draft a rule authorizing the sale to the year of Ethanol-based premium gasoline blends called E15 – a restricted product during the summer because of concerns it contributes to smog.
In an interview with Reuters, Bill Wehrum, deputy administrator of EPA's Air and Radiation Department, said the agency was in the process of finalizing the regulations by June 1, in time for the driving season 2019.
"We will get there," said Wehrum, adding that they were ready to be sued for breaking the rule. "I think it is almost certain that we will be challenged in court. I think we presented a good legal argument, "he added.
Reportage of Humeyra Pamuk; Edited by David Gregorio and Richard Valdmanis
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