Reported by Feedstuffs
Five governors — Greg Abbott of Texas, Gary Herbert of Utah, John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma and Mark Gordon of Wyoming, have asked the Trump Administration to waive U.S. biofuel blending requirements. However, their request received a loud pushback and criticism from the biofuel industry.
The governors cite a spike in the cost of tradable credits refiners use to prove compliance with annual biofuel blending targets, as well as the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged fuel demand and already spurred a closure for at least one oil refinery. The credit costs have more than doubled this year.
Related: Ethanol industry faces perfect tsunami as prices tank
A waiver of Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volumes set more than a year in advance would severely harm the biodiesel industry. Texas and Louisiana are two of the top states in biodiesel and renewable diesel production; an RFS waiver would particularly hurt tens of thousands of workers in the two states, said the National Biodiesel Board.
Renewable Fuels Assn. (RFA) president and chief executive officer Geoff Cooper, in a letter Friday to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler, reminded EPA that a waiver may only be granted if petitioners can show that “economic harm” is “severe” in nature and is a direct result of the RFS, not some other factor.
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