The new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal for volume requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard will be a hot topic at the 2015 Fuel Ethanol Workshop this week in Minneapolis.
Advanced Ethanol Council (AEC) Executive Director Brooke Coleman will be on the program tomorrow morning to talk about what the proposal means for the advanced biofuels industry. “The good news is it is clear that EPA and the Obama Administration want to send a signal to the marketplace that domestic renewable fuel markets are going to grow. The blending targets are definitely stronger and theoretically create new markets,” says Coleman. “But Clean Air Act regulations have to have backbone to actually achieve their ambitions, and EPA is still allowing the oil industry’s refusal to comply with the RFS to be cause to slow the program down.”
There continues to be concern in the industry about how the proposal will impact investment in advanced biofuels. “Renewable fuels are a huge opportunity for the United States to achieve President Obama’s climate change goals, capture private investment, create jobs and save drivers money. Today’s proposal undermines all of that,” says Adam Monroe, president of Novozymes Americas, a biotechnology company that provides enzyme solutions for biofuels production. “The EPA’s aspiration should not be a slow buildup in renewable fuel volumes, it should be an economy driven by clean technologies, supporting thousands of new jobs and billions in private investment. That all starts with aggressive goals for the RFS.”
Novozymes will be featured in many of the workshops at FEW and will be sponsoring our coverage this week.
