The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) held its annual membership meeting in Washington, DC this week, where the focus was the recently released proposed rule for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volume requirements for 2014-2017.  American Soybean Association (ASA) Director and NBB Representative Mike Cunningham, ASA Washington staff and numerous state soybean association staff and industry members attended the meeting. While there, the biodiesel stakeholders held meetings with Members of Congress and heard from EPA Assistant Administrator Janet McCabe.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its proposed rule in May to establish the volume requirements for the RFS, including the volume requirements for biomass-based diesel for 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. By law, EPA is supposed to finalize biomass-based diesel volumes 14 months in advance of the applicable year, making the agency significantly overdue in setting the volumes for 2014, 2015 and 2016.

EPA proposes setting the biomass-based diesel and the total Advanced Biofuels volumes at the following levels:

• 2014 – 1.63 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel, 2.68 billion gallons of advanced biofuels
• 2015 – 1.7 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel, 2.9 billion gallons of advanced biofuels
• 2016 – 1.8 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel, 3.4 billion gallons of Advanced biofuels
• 2017 – 1.9 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel

“The proposal is a step in the right direction, and we appreciate the administration’s efforts to strengthen and grow the RFS,” said Anne Steckel, vice president of Government Affairs for NBB. “However, there is plenty of room for improvement before it is finalized in November. We intend to make sure policy makers in Washington understand biodiesel’s full potential to help grow the economy and strengthen our energy security while sharply reducing pollution.”

The volumes proposed by EPA are certainly an improvement over the previous proposal, which would have set the biomass-based diesel requirements at 1.28 billion gallons for 2014 and 2015. The increases proposed by EPA will provide some benefit and certainty to the domestic biodiesel industry. However, ASA believes the EPA and the Obama Administration could do more to capitalize on additional benefits that could be achieved with more robust biomass-based diesel volumes.

There will be a 60 day public comment period that ends on July 27, 2015.  EPA intends to finalize the rule by Nov. 30, 2015. EPA will hold a public hearing in Kansas City, KS on June 25. ASA will develop comments and provide draft comments and talking points to our members for use and submission to EPA.