Advanced biofuels group joins RFS reform push

OREANDA-NEWS. March 12, 2015. Second-generation biofuel producers proposed changes to US biofuel mandates today, joining a push to modify the embattled program and drawing criticism from larger alternative fuels groups opposed to tinkering with the system.

The Advanced Biofuel Association is seeking legislation setting minimum prices for cellulosic fuels, extending mandates for the fuel beyond 2022 and eliminating waivers allowing US refiners and importers to not purchase physical cellulosic fuel. The organization, which says it represents almost 40 member companies, described the requests as a major policy shift in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) necessary to continue to secure financing for the industry.

"We believe that if Congress enacts these changes, then the investment community will have the certainty necessary to finance continued development of the advanced and cellulosic industry," association president Michael McAdams said.

Cellulosic fuels have long struggled with questions regarding the difficult technology's viability. US biofuel mandates requiring importers, refiners and other companies ensure federally-set volumes of biofuels enter the US transportation fuel supply specify volumes for the second-generation fuel.

But relatively few physical volumes of the fuel existed before six months ago, and delivered volumes remain well below targets set by Congress in 2007. Many of the new cellulosic credits companies must acquire to show compliance with the RFS, called renewable identification numbers (RINs), come from biogas burned for fuel in compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. Biofuels developed from non-food feedstocks to use in conventional vehicles continues to develop.

The proposal could draw support from legislators including Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), who have filed legislation to shift the RFS to solely mandate such advanced biofuels. Scott Faber, vice president of governmental affairs for the Environmental Working Group, which opposes corn-based biofuels, swiftly praised the proposals.

"I don't think there's any greater indictment of RFS than today's announcement by ABFA," Faber said during a conference call on biofuel mandates.

But other advanced biofuel producers and organizations whose members include conventional, corn-based ethanol producers dismissed the proposal. Groups such as the Renewable Fuel Association and Growth Energy have pushed back against any attempts to revise or repeal the mandates, anxious to head off a slippery slope of changes that would diminish growing volume targets.

Adam Monroe, president of the cellulosic enzymes producer Novozymes, said the proposal was not representative of the whole industry.

Renewable Fuels Association chief executive Bob Dinneen went further during a conference call on the mandates.

"We seriously question who ABFA is representing these days, because all they are doing is calling for action where action is not needed," Dinneen said. "It hurts, it doesn't help."