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On February 9, 2015, a bi-partisan group of 32 Senators led by Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy regarding 2014 and future biodiesel volume requirements under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In their letter, the Senators urge EPA to get the biodiesel renewable volume requirements (RVOs) under the RFS back on schedule. To this...

Last week, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke at a biofuel industry conference and addressed concerns raised over the likelihood that the final 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rule would include renewable volume obligations (RVO) for total renewable fuel at levels below those included for 2014 under the statute. Generally, total renewable RVOs are comprised of corn-starch ethanol. Secretary Vilsack projected a positive spin on this likelihood, reportedly telling...

On April 8, 2014, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry held a hearing on "Advanced Biofuels: Creating Jobs and Lower Prices at the Pump." The following witnesses testified at the hearing: Mr. Richard Childress, CEO, Richard Childress Racing, LLC; Mr. Jan Koninckx, Global Business Director for Biorefineries, DuPont Industrial Biosciences; Mr. Brooke Coleman, Executive Director, Advanced Ethanol Council; Dr. Sumesh Arora, Vice President, Innovate Mississippi,...

Monroe Energy, LLC (Monroe), a refinery and subsidiary of Delta Airlines, has filed another lawsuit challenging EPA's implementation of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In this latest suit, Monroe argues that blenders, not refiners and importers, of fuel should be deemed the obligated parties under the RFS. Monroe does not have blending capacity like some larger refiners. Monroe asserts that the fact that EPA in its proposed rule to set the 2014 RFS renewable...

On January 24, 2014, seven Democratic Members of Congress from Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois sent a letter to President Obama requesting a meeting with the White House to discuss the proposed reductions to the 2014 RVOs. The same group of Congressmen met recently with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to urge EPA to reconsider the proposed reduction. In the January 24, 2014, letter, the Congressmen stress the potentially negative impact of the proposed reductions on the...

EPA received approximately 16,000 comments by the January 28, 2014, deadline for the public to weigh in on the EPA's proposed 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) renewable volume obligations (RVO). Industry organizations from all interested stakeholders made submissions. For the first time, EPA proposed to reduce the statutory RFS RVOs for corn ethanol and advanced biofuels, in addition to cellulosic biofuels. Under the proposal, EPA would use "a combination of" both of its RFS...

On January 23, 2014, EPA issued letters to the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) partially answering their October 2013 petitions for consideration of the final rulemaking, "Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: 2013 Renewable Fuel Standards; Final Rule," published in the Federal Register on August 15, 2013. In its letters, EPA explains that it is granting the petitions by AFPM and API for reconsideration of the 2013...

There have been several efforts in the last few weeks to convince the Obama Administration to reconsider its proposal to reduce the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) statutory renewable volume obligations (RVO) for advanced and total renewable (corn ethanol) biofuels, and to maintain in 2014 and 2015 the status quo for biodiesel. Senators David Vitter (R-LA) and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) are expected to introduce a bill in the coming weeks, which would amend the RFS...

On November 15, 2013, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy signed the long-awaited and much anticipated Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to set the 2014 renewable volume obligations (RVO) under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Included in the NPRM is a proposal to repeal retroactively the 2011 cellulosic RVOs and refund obligated parties nearly $5 million to recover their costs for trying to meet them. Simultaneously, the Agency issued a...

On November 8, 2013, Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA) sent a letter to President Obama stating that he is "angered and frustrated" that EPA is considering reducing renewable volume obligations (RVO) as part of its current rulemaking process to set the 2014 RVOs under the federal RFS. He further urges President Obama and his Administration to reconsider such reductions and points out that reductions like those contained in a recently leaked draft of the 2014 RFS...