WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. biofuel producers expressed confidence on Monday that the industry would be able to fend off any attempt by lawmakers to reform the federal renewable fuel program in 2015.
Critics of the U.S. biofuel mandate have intensified calls for reform of the program after the Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday that it would not be able to finalize targets for renewable fuel use in 2014 until next year. The targets had been due in late 2013.
Leaders of biofuel trade groups said oil refiners pressing to weaken the program would not succeed because support for the renewable fuel industry remains strong in Congress, especially among Corn Belt state lawmakers.
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The EPA proposed cuts on grounds ethanol was bumping up against the so-called blend wall, the point when the law would require the fuel to be blended into gasoline at levels higher than the 10 percent mix that dominates U.S. gas pumps.
“The fundamental mathematics of biofuel policy has not changed because it is a regional non-partisan issue,” said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, at a Senate briefing on the latest delay in the mandate.
Biofuel supporters have rejected congressional action on the Renewable Fuel Standard, fearing that changes could weaken the program. They argue that the EPA has all the tools it needs to administer the targets as Congress intended.
The RFS requires increasing amounts of ethanol and biodiesel to be blended into U.S. fuel supplies until 2022.
Dinneen and other members of the biofuels coalition, Fuels America, made presentations in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate on Monday discussing the path forward for the biofuel industry after EPA’s move.
The agency has pledged to get the biofuel program back on track by finalizing the targets for 2014 through 2016 in the new year. The biofuel backers said it would be important for the EPA to stick with this plan.
“They need to get back on a predictable schedule,” said Tom Buis, chief executive of Growth Energy.
