By Ryan Hanrahan
Agri-Pulse’s Kim Chipman reported that “the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced 29 full and partial small refinery exemptions (SREs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program for 2025. That amounts to 1.76 billion RINs, or biofuel credits used to track RFS compliance, far surpassing the roughly 990 million RINs initially indicated by EPA.”
“Amid concerns from the ag community about the impact on biofuel demand, the agency said it will reallocate 100% of the difference between projected and actual exempted volumes for 2025 SREs into the biofuel-blending requirements, known as Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs), for this year and next,” Chipman reported. “EPA says it will act before the end of next month.”
“Without that reallocation, the American Soybean Association warned that biomass-based diesel demand would decline by 500 million gallons and soybean farmers would see almost a $1 billion loss in revenue,” Chipman reported. “… ‘Soybean farmers greatly appreciate President Trump, Senator Grassley along with other biofuel champions in Congress, and USDA officials for sounding the alarm and working around the clock to ensure that soybean farmers and producers of homegrown biofuels are not negatively impacted by today’s SRE announcement,’ Dave Walton, ASA vice president and Iowa soybean farmer, said in a statement.”
Reuters’ Jarrett Renshaw and Siddharth Cavale reported that “the decision caps a week of intense lobbying by the Farm Belt and Big Oil over pending small-refinery exemption requests, pitting farmers who fear lost demand for biofuel crops against refiners seeking relief from costly blending mandates.”
Source : illinois.edu