NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Paul Winters
202-737-8801
pwinters@biodiesel.org
YPSILANTI, MI - Today, National Biodiesel Board
(NBB) staff and members testified at the Environmental Protection Agency's
public hearing on the Supplemental Notice for Proposed Volumes for 2020 and
Biomass-Based Diesel Volume for 2021. NBB made a case that in the final 2020
rule, EPA should account for the impacts of past small-refinery exemptions,
properly address the D.C. Circuit's remand in Americans for Clean Energy, and increase
advanced biofuel and biomass-based diesel volume that drive growth in renewable
fuel production.
NBB
expressed appreciation for the proposal to account for small refinery
exemptions in the future but asked that EPA use the best estimate available.
"EPA
should change how it accounts for small refinery exemptions in the final rule
in order to ensure that the renewable volume obligations are achieved,"
said Kate Shenk, NBB Director of Regulatory Affairs. "EPA could do so by
taking further steps to limit the number of exemptions it grants in the future.
Or, it could base its estimate for the number of small refinery exemptions in
2020 on the number of exemptions it has actually granted in recent years."
Kent
Engelbrecht, Chairman of the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) and Trade Manager,
Biodiesel, at ADM, also stated, "Because this proposal provides no
certainty that EPA will follow DOE's recommendations going forward, it leaves
the industry skeptical that the rule will prevent the demand destruction that
the industry has been experiencing since EPA increased the granting of SREs in
2016. If EPA proceeds with using an average of DOE's recommendations, rather
than an average of actual waived gallons, the agency will continue to reduce
the applicable volumes, creating an effective volume requirement well below
what EPA is bound to ensure."
NBB
also highlighted parts of the overall 2020 RFS annual rule that need to be
improved.
"The
Supplemental Notice does not propose to do anything about small refinery
exemptions before 2020. Yet, over 4 billion gallons of demand for biofuels has
been lost due to small refinery exemptions from 2016 through 2018," added
David Cobb, NBB Federal Affairs Director. "This impact has been particularly
significant for biomass-based diesel producers because biomass-based diesel can
be used to satisfy multiple categories of fuel under the RFS."
Made
from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil,
soybean oil and animal fats, biodiesel is a renewable, clean-burning diesel
replacement that can be used in existing diesel engines without modification.
It is the nation's first domestically produced, commercially available advanced
biofuel. NBB is the U.S. trade association representing the entire biodiesel
value chain, including producers, feedstock suppliers, and fuel distributors,
as well as the U.S. renewable diesel industry.
###
For more about biodiesel, visit www.biodiesel.org.