EPA Ethanol Mandate lowered slightly

[jake75]

MEATINGPLACE By Tom Johnston on 8/7/2013

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Tuesday it will tweak the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program in 2014 to allow for a reduction in both the required advanced biofuel and total renewable RFS volumes that must be blended into the U.S. gas supply.

The agency made the announcement as it declared the final requirement for 2013, reducing the 2013 cellulosic biofuels mandate to 6 million gallons from 1 billion and reaffirming the Advanced Biofuels mandate of 2.75 billion gallons.

A January 2013 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals required the agency to reevaluate projections for cellulosic biofuel to reflect market conditions; the final 2013 standard for cellulosic biofuel announced Tuesday was developed in a manner consistent with that ruling, EPA said.

The final 2013 overall volumes and standards require 16.55 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended into the U.S. fuel supply (a 9.74 percent blend). Most U.S. gasoline today contains no more than 10 percent ethanol, and EPA doesn’t see demand to rise enough to meet higher amounts originally outlined for 2014.

“Projected to occur in 2014, the “E10 blend wall” refers to the difficulty in incorporating ethanol into the fuel supply at volumes exceeding those achieved by the sale of nearly all gasoline as E10,” the agency said. "Most gasoline sold in the U.S. today is E10. In the rule issued today, EPA is announcing that it will propose to use flexibilities in the RFS statute to reduce both the advanced biofuel and total renewable volumes in the forthcoming 2014 RFS volume requirement proposal."

------------------------------------------------
Also see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... _opinion_0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;