B&C® Biobased and Sustainable Chemicals Blog

This week, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) asking for an investigation into claims that speculators are manipulating the RIN market in which RIN credits are bought and sold to help obligated parties meet their annual renewable volume obligations (RVO) under the federal RFS. Senator Stabenow expressed concern with the lack of transparency in the RIN market. Ethanol RIN prices have dramatically risen this year and there...

Last week, federal securities regulators charged Imperial Petroleum, Inc. and its subsidiary, Indiana-based E-Biofuels LLC, with carrying out a fraudulent federal RFS renewable identification number (RIN) and tax credit scheme. It is alleged that from November 2009 to January 2012, this scheme generated 52 million fraudulent RIN credits and $35 million in false tax credits, and cost investors approximately $60 million. More information is available online. This is the fourth major biodiesel RIN...

If the Continuing Resolution (CR) currently funding the government is allowed to expire on September 30, it could prove devastating to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Unlike other federal agencies, EPA cannot claim exceptions for many of its employees. In the event the CR expires, as EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy asserted in public remarks this week, EPA "would effectively shut down." It would only have skeletal staff and would surely impact Renewable Fuel Standard...

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it is seeking bids from bioenergy producers to purchase sugar from the Department as part of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Farm Bill) Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP). This will be the second time that USDA will utilize the FFP. The 2008 Farm Bill directs USDA to keep sugar prices at or above certain levels, and authorizes USDA to either acquire...

On September 19, 2013, in a partisan vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a vote of 217-210 its version of the nutrition portion of the next Farm Bill. All Democrats and 15 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against the bill, which would cut $40 billion from the national food stamp program over the next decade and will almost surely delay final passage of the next five-year Farm Bill. The current Farm...

On September 16, 2013, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based renewable chemicals company, Metabolix, announced the development of Mvera B5010, which is a compostable film grade resin to be used for global compostable bag and film markets. Mvera B5010 meets international industrial standards for compostability and will be featured during K 2013 in Düsseldorf, Germany, October 16-23, 2013. A copy of Metabolix's press release on the announcement is available online....

Specialty chemical company Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc. announced this week the commercial availability of Inherent™ C18 Diacid, a mid-chain length, biobased diacid that will, as the company describes in its press release, enable "producers of polyamides and polyurethanes, lubricants and adhesives to significantly expand their portfolios with cost-competitive products that demonstrate performance not possible from products made with more common, shorter-chain diacids." A...

On September 18, 2013, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a December 2011 district court ruling and held that California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) does not violate the Dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution on its face. The district court had sided with groups from the oil and gas, ethanol, and trucking industries and found that the LCFS violated the Dormant Commerce Clause because the statute gave higher carbon intensity values to...

On September 12, 2013, Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) introduced H.R. 3084, the "Qualifying Renewable Chemical Production Tax Credit Act," to provide tax parity for the renewable chemical industry in the United States. Along with Representative Pascrell, the original co-sponsors of the bi-partisan bill are Representatives Steve Stockman (R-TX), Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), and Richard Neal (D-MA). Essentially, the bill would extend the current production tax...

Improved utility of data, transparent supply chains, and transformative innovation were just some of the topics discussed by regulators, researchers, and industry at the 3rd Safer Consumer Products Summit: National Policy Outlook held in Washington, D.C. this week. Summit Chair Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner, B&C, opened the main summit by noting the dramatic shift in environmental law from the regulation of discharges of chemical substances into the environment (and their subsequent...