The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) and the American Soybean Association (ASA) wrote a letter to President Donald Trump this week asking that he “provide additional help to the nation’s farmers and rural communities by supporting policies that expand production and use of biodiesel.”
In the letter, NBB CEO Donnell Rehagen and ASA CEO Ryan Findlay state, “Biodiesel adds value to every bushel of soybeans and plays an important role by providing a market for surplus soybean oil. Today, farming income is at its lowest level in more than a decade. Even as soybean growers set production records this year, they are experiencing depressed prices and market uncertainty.”
The CEOs add that the Environmental Protection Agency “offered too little room for growth of biodiesel” in this year’s proposed rule for the RFS. While the agency acknowledged the industry’s ability to produce 2.8 billion gallons, it proposed a much lower volume. Moreover, the agency granted a flood of small refinery exemptions that reduced biodiesel demand by at least 300 million gallons – equivalent to the annual production of Iowa, the nation’s top biodiesel-producing state, they point out.