[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][title size=”1″ content_align=”left” style_type=”underline solid” sep_color=”#000000″ margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” class=”” id=””]Deadline for EPA’s RFS requirements looms[/title][fusion_text]Thursday, October 22nd 2015
When President George W. Bush signed the law creating the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in 2005 to support biofuels production, he explained that “Using ethanol and biodiesel will leave our air cleaner. And every time we use a home-grown fuel, particularly these, we’re going to be helping our farmers, and at the same time, be less dependent on foreign sources of energy.” One measure of success is that with the RFS requiring the oil industry to blend increasing amounts of ethanol into the nation’s gasoline supply, corn ethanol production has grown by 267 percent, from 3.9 billion gallons in 2005 to 14.3 billion gallons in 2014. As a result, ethanol now provides 10 percent of the nation’s transportation fuel supply, lowering pump prices and significantly reducing the need for crude oil imports. The even better news is that the 195 ethanol plants operating in the U.S. today have a total production capacity of some 17 billion gallons. The industry’s untapped capacity could be unleashed to reduce both crude oil imports and gasoline prices further if the RFS volume requirements were raised to the levels set by Congress. For now, however, the EPA has proposed lowering the volume requirement from the law’s 20.5 billion gallon mandate for 2015 to 16.3 billion gallons, with corn ethanol accounting for 13.4 billion. Another measure of success is that the farm sector has been prospering, at least in part because ethanol use has boosted corn demand, production and prices, which in turn boosts wheat and soybean prices as well. But ethanol and agricultural interests see lowered projections for farm income and rural prosperity as direct consequences of EPA’s proposal to reduce the RFS volume requirements. Nov. 30 is the deadline for the EPA to finalize its long-delayed RFS volume requirements for 2014, 2015 and 2016. When it proposed lower volumes in May, EPA explained it had the authority to set lower requirements based on “inadequate domestic supply.” EPA stated that lower volumes were appropriate “due to constraints in the fuel market to accommodate increasing volumes of ethanol” – a phrase that ethanol supporters view as EPA allowing the oil industry to constrain ethanol demand by refusing to install the filling station blender pumps needed to increase ethanol use.
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