MOSCOW (MRC) -- US biofuel and corn industry groups said they are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to use restraint in its use of waivers exempting refiners from their biofuel blending obligations after the Supreme Court last week upheld the controversial program, reported Reuters.
The pressure comes as the refining industry and its representatives push hard for the opposite, asking that the administration of President Joe Biden ease the industry's compliance costs under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard to help it recover from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
The conflicting demands reflect a perennial truth about the nation's biofuel policy: it is a lightning rod of contention between the politically powerful oil and corn industries and tends to place whoever is occupying the White House in an impossible position.
"Our collective focus is now turning to EPA to end these exemptions, which we all believe have been misused in the past," said Matthew Morrison, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, in a press call with biofuel and corn groups.
Geoff Cooper, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, a leading US biofuel group, said on the call that they are constantly communicating with the EPA to share their thoughts on the issue and those meetings will continue.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania both passed resolutions last week urging the Biden administration to provide relief to oil refiners by revising their blending obligations, measures supported by oil industry groups.
Under the RFS, refiners must blend billions of gallons of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into their fuel each year, or buy tradable credits, known as RINs, from those that do. Small refiners can request an exemption if they can prove the cost of complying with the mandates would do them financial harm.
Biofuel advocates say the exemptions hurt demand for ethanol, while the oil industry rejects that claim and says the mandates can cost them a fortune.
On Friday the Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that had called into question the future of the small refinery exemption program, in a major win for the refining industry. Small refiners had secured an increasing number of such waivers under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump.
It is unclear how the Supreme Court's decision will influence the EPA as it considers 50 pending small refinery exemption requests for the 2019 and 2020 compliance years. The EPA must also propose volume mandates for 2021 and 2022. The 2021 rule is already more than half a year late due to the coronavirus, which slashed US fuel demand due to travel restrictions and lockdowns.
As MRC informed earlier, in April 2021, the US Environmental Protection Agency asked industry groups for their input on the future of the nation's biofuel policy after it ends its current phase in 2022. The consultations will provide a new opportunity for the oil, corn and biofuel lobbies to reshape the regulation, called the Renewable Fuel Standard, which has bitterly divided the two industries for more than a decade. Under the RFS, oil refiners must blend increasing billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation's fuel mix each year or buy trade able credits from those that do.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
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