The Environmental Protection Agency has announced it will halt new petitions for renewable fuel pathways for six months or so. In response, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) urged the agency to speed up rather than slow down the Petition Process for New Renewable Fuel Pathways under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The petition process was established in March of 2010 during the process of finalizing the rules for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“EPA’s effort to improve the petition process for new renewable fuel pathways under the RFS is welcome. But the agency should aim to complete this review process in a more timely manner,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section. “Advanced biofuel companies need a pathway to the fuel market in order to attract necessary investment to build and start up new production facilities that create new jobs. The lengthy wait for approval of new pathways chills job creation and investment in the sector.”

Erickson noted that in the last four years, the EPA has completed less than half of the 62 petitions it has received for approvals for new renewable fuel pathways. In fact, he said there are 36 petitions are still waiting action with an average wait time of nearly 17 months. Companies filing cellulosic biofuel pathway petitions have faced the longest wait times, an average of 24 months. Erickson said this delay has slowed deployment of new advanced biofuel technologies.

Erickson concluded, “Combined with the proposed rule the proposed delay of the petition process may further undermine the development of advanced and cellulosic biofuels just as they are set to produce millions of commercial gallons and launch a rapid scale up.”