Ethanol, diesel producers present differing testimony at EPA hearing
June 26, 2015 |12:54 PM
Ethanol producers and soybean farmers presented differing testimony Thursday when the Environmental Protection Agency held a hearing in Kansas City, Kan., on its proposals for volumetric standards under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
According to his prepared testimony, Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis said the RFS has been a modern American success story, but that “EPA’s latest RVO proposal to waive the statutory renewable volume obligations would eviscerate the promise of the RFS.”
“It would cause severe harm to farmers, the biofuels industry, and the nation’s economy,” Buis said. “This proposal is already creating great uncertainty for farmers and other industry investors”
“The RFS was approved by a bipartisan majority in Congress and enacted into law eight years ago,” he said.
“Since that time, the oil industry has used its considerable power to delay, litigate, and undercut the RFS. Now, by refusing to take any steps to allow higher biofuel blends into the consumer marketplace, the oil industry is claiming the statutory volumes of the RFS cannot be met because of the so-called ‘blend wall.’
”The EPA’s proposal to waive the statutory renewable fuel volumes mistakenly accepts this logic,” Buis said.
“It ignores the potential for E15, E85 and biodiesel. It ignores the large surplus of RINs, which could be used. It ignores increased gasoline demand. And, most fundamentally, it ignores Congressional intent in creating the RFS program.”
“EPA, if you seek to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs here in the US that cannot be outsourced and strengthen the rural economy, and, if you truly want cleaner air, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, a better environment for our children and lower gas prices for American consumers, tear it down this blend wall!,” Buis said.
Geoff Cooper, the senior vice president of the Renewable Fuels Association and Randy Doyal, the RFA board chaiman, also urged the EPA to abandon its blend wall methodology.
In his prepared testimony, Doyal said that even though gasoline consumption might be slightly lower today than Congress anticipated when it adopted the RFS, it was always the intent of the program to push beyond the blend wall and increase the share of renewable fuels in our nation’s fuel supply.
Bob Henry, the Kansas director of the American Soybean Association, said his group is “glad” that EPA’s proposed rule increases volumes for biodiesel in the RFS to 1.9 billion gallons in 2017, but noted that the agency has an opportunity to support more aggressive biodiesel levels in the future.
“We see no reason why EPA should not, at a minimum, support biomass-based diesel volumes of at least 2 billion gallons for 2016 and 2.3 billion gallons for 2017,” Henry said, highlighting that additional soybean oil will be displaced from domestic food markets as a result of the recent FDA determination requiring the elimination of all partially hydrogenated oil.
Henry also illustrated that increasing the biomass-based diesel volumes relative to the total advanced biofuels volumes will promote the use of biodiesel over imported Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol, and noted that an increase in the biomass-based diesel volumes would account for the likelihood of increased imports of biodiesel from Argentina.
According to his prepared testimony, Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis said the RFS has been a modern American success story, but that “EPA’s latest RVO proposal to waive the statutory renewable volume obligations would eviscerate the promise of the RFS.”
“It would cause severe harm to farmers, the biofuels industry, and the nation’s economy,” Buis said. “This proposal is already creating great uncertainty for farmers and other industry investors”
“The RFS was approved by a bipartisan majority in Congress and enacted into law eight years ago,” he said.
“Since that time, the oil industry has used its considerable power to delay, litigate, and undercut the RFS. Now, by refusing to take any steps to allow higher biofuel blends into the consumer marketplace, the oil industry is claiming the statutory volumes of the RFS cannot be met because of the so-called ‘blend wall.’
”The EPA’s proposal to waive the statutory renewable fuel volumes mistakenly accepts this logic,” Buis said.
“It ignores the potential for E15, E85 and biodiesel. It ignores the large surplus of RINs, which could be used. It ignores increased gasoline demand. And, most fundamentally, it ignores Congressional intent in creating the RFS program.”
“EPA, if you seek to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs here in the US that cannot be outsourced and strengthen the rural economy, and, if you truly want cleaner air, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, a better environment for our children and lower gas prices for American consumers, tear it down this blend wall!,” Buis said.
Geoff Cooper, the senior vice president of the Renewable Fuels Association and Randy Doyal, the RFA board chaiman, also urged the EPA to abandon its blend wall methodology.
In his prepared testimony, Doyal said that even though gasoline consumption might be slightly lower today than Congress anticipated when it adopted the RFS, it was always the intent of the program to push beyond the blend wall and increase the share of renewable fuels in our nation’s fuel supply.
Bob Henry, the Kansas director of the American Soybean Association, said his group is “glad” that EPA’s proposed rule increases volumes for biodiesel in the RFS to 1.9 billion gallons in 2017, but noted that the agency has an opportunity to support more aggressive biodiesel levels in the future.
“We see no reason why EPA should not, at a minimum, support biomass-based diesel volumes of at least 2 billion gallons for 2016 and 2.3 billion gallons for 2017,” Henry said, highlighting that additional soybean oil will be displaced from domestic food markets as a result of the recent FDA determination requiring the elimination of all partially hydrogenated oil.
Henry also illustrated that increasing the biomass-based diesel volumes relative to the total advanced biofuels volumes will promote the use of biodiesel over imported Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol, and noted that an increase in the biomass-based diesel volumes would account for the likelihood of increased imports of biodiesel from Argentina.
