Refiners press EPA for lower biofuels mandates

OREANDA-NEWS. US refiners last week pressed federal regulators to consider the limits of current fuel infrastructure when setting overdue federal biofuel mandates.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the two major lobbying organizations for US refining, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) risks creating a fuel shortage if it does not use its congressional authority to set lower volumes.

Federal biofuel blending mandates set under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) are months overdue. The EPA agreed in a consent decree earlier this year to by 1 June propose the volume of biofuels refiners, importers and other companies must ensure enter the US fuel supply in 2015. Mandates for 2014, now nearly 18 months overdue, will be finalized by November.

Mandates proposed — but never finalized — for 2014 for the first time cited the US auto fleet's ability to consume biofuels and the fuel distribution infrastructure's ability to legally supply such fuels as a constraint on the industry's ability to meet congressional blending mandates set in 2007.

The limitations, known as the blend wall, prompted the EPA to propose the first year-to-year reduction in biofuel mandates in the history of the program.

US biofuel producers are adamant that such a decision allows refiners and the larger fuel industry to avoid making changes congress intended in 2007.