What is Biodiesel? Using Biodiesel Production Policy News Home Search News Display 2 Biodiesel Industry Welcomes Renewable Fuels
Proposal May 29, 2015
Applauds Growth and Stability but Presses
for Additional Volumes FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ben Evans/NBB 202-997-1919
[email protected] Applauds Growth and Stability but Presses for Additional Volumes WASHINGTON – The National Biodiesel
Board (NBB) voiced measured support
Friday for the EPA’s proposal to increase
volumes for biodiesel and other Advanced
Biofuels under the Renewable Fuel
Standard (RFS) while calling for improvements in the final rule.
“This proposal is a significant step in the
right direction,” said NBB CEO Joe Jobe. “It
is not perfect, but it will get the U.S.
biodiesel industry growing again and put
people back to work. I want to thank Administrator McCarthy and Secretary
Vilsack for restoring growth to the program
and for their commitment to renewable
fuels.”
“Biodiesel has proven that Advanced
Biofuels can do just what we said they would, which is create jobs and strengthen
our energy security while significantly
cutting harmful pollution from petroleum,”
Jobe said. “Biodiesel has displaced more
than 8 billion gallons of petroleum diesel in
the U.S. over the last decade. That is an incredible achievement, and we will build
on that success under the proposal the
EPA released today.”
“However, more can be done, and we
particularly look forward to working with the
administration on strengthening biodiesel volumes for 2016 and 2017 during the
comment period in the coming weeks,”
Jobe said.
Made from an increasingly diverse mix of
resources such as recycled cooking oil,
soybean oil and animal fats, biodiesel is a renewable, clean-burning diesel
replacement used in existing diesel engines
without modification. It is the first and only
commercial-scale fuel produced across the
U.S. to meet the EPA’s definition as an
Advanced Biofuel - meaning the EPA has determined that it reduces greenhouse gas
emissions by more than 50 percent when
compared with petroleum diesel.
Biodiesel falls under the Biomass-based
Diesel category of the RFS, which is a
subset of the overall Advanced Biofuels category. The EPA proposal, which is
slated to be finalized in November, would
gradually raise biodiesel volumes by about
100 million gallons per year to a standard
of 1.9 billion gallons in 2017. Because of
biodiesel’s higher energy content, this would count as 2.95 billion ethanol
equivalent gallons under the RFS. The
overall Advanced Biofuel standard would
rise to 3.4 billion ethanol equivalent gallons
in 2016. NBB had requested more
aggressive growth to a biodiesel standard of 2.7 billion gallons by 2017, along with
additional growth in the overall Advanced
Biofuel category.
In its initial proposal in November 2013, the
EPA called for holding the biodiesel
standard flat at 1.28 billion gallons through 2015 – an effective cut from actual annual
production in 2013 and 2014 of about 1.8
billion gallons.
“Biodiesel is one of the most practical, cost-
effective means we have for cutting carbon
emissions in the transportation sector, and there is no doubt that the industry can
exceed the EPA’s proposed volumes in a
sustainable way using domestic resources,”
Jobe said, noting that the EPA’s proposal
for 2017 is only slightly higher than the
actual biodiesel production of 1.8 billion gallons in over the last two years. “It is
imperative that we get it right. This is a
critical component of President Obama’s
pledge to address climate change while
also making sure America leads in the
development of alternative fuels.” Biodiesel is produced in nearly every state
in the country and is supporting more than
62,000 jobs. NBB is the U.S. biodiesel
trade association.