0
Under the Clean Air Act (CAA), as amended by the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to set the annual standards for the Renewable Fuel Standard program (RFS) for each year. This regulatory action proposes to establish the annual percentage standards for 2014 for cellulosic, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuels that apply to gasoline and diesel produced or imported in year 2014. EPA is also required to determine the applicable national volume of biomass-based diesel that will be required in 2015, as the statute does not specify the applicable volumes for years after 2012.
The proposal seeks to put the RFS program on a steady path forward – ensuring the continued growth of renewable fuels while recognizing the practical limits on ethanol blending, called the ethanol “blend wall.” The blend wall refers to the difficulty in incorporating increasing amounts of ethanol into the transportation fuel supply at volumes exceeding those achieved by the sale of nearly all gasoline as E10 (gasoline containing 10 percent ethanol by volume). Although the production of renewable fuels has been increasing, overall gasoline consumption in the United States is less than anticipated when Congress established the program by law in 2007. In order to address that issue, EPA is proposing – to use existing authorities under the law – to reduce the advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel standards for 2014. The Agency is also proposing to maintain the same volume for biomass-based diesel for 2014 and 2015 as was adopted for 2013. Once the proposal is published in the Federal Register, it will be open to a 60 day public comment period.
The proposal discusses a variety of approaches for setting the 2014 standards, and includes a number of production and consumption ranges for key categories of biofuel covered by the RFS program. The proposal seeks comment on a range of total renewable fuel volumes for 2014, covering both ethanol and non-ethanol fuels, and proposes a level within that range for total renewable fuel at 15.21 billion gallons. For advanced biofuel, EPA proposes to reduce the statutory volume to the sum of the cellulosic volume, the biomass-based diesel requirement, and the additional non-ethanol advanced biofuels that could reasonably be expected to be available and consumed, at a level of 2.20 billion gallons.
Friday November 15, 2013/ EPA/ United States.
http://www.epa.gov
