Of special interest to renderers who are already in or contemplating a jump into the world of biodiesel refining is the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). It’s the RFS that mandates a ready-made market for renewable fuels – biodiesel and ethanol – by setting a schedule of how much renewable fuel must be blended into gasoline and diesel over the next six years.
EPA’s first deadline is August 8, 2006, the date by which the agency is to set the rules on how gasoline and diesel refiners will meet RFS requirements. Well, EPA already announced it will miss the deadline, releasing during the first week in January a substitute rulemaking because EPA “does not believe that it can meet the August 2006 statutory deadline. The issues that need to be resolved in adopting such comprehensive regulations are complex, making it important for EPA to receive input from various stakeholders which require significant amounts of time and effort…”
What EPA is actually saying here is that eight months is not enough time for agency staff to get up to speed on the technology of blending renewable fuels with gasoline and diesel. EPA has a steep learning curve and must “analyze…feasibility costs, emissions inventory impacts, and benefits,” and it must do so within the federal notice-and-public-comment process.
But – there’s always a “but” – EPA doesn’t have the luxury of setting its own deadline, so it’s going to allow the statutory default level of blending to kick in. That language says if EPA can’t get the rules written by August 8, 2006, then for calendar year 2006, 2.78 percent of the gasoline “sold or dispensed” in the United States must be renewable fuel. At the same time, the agency kicked out on January 5th a “direct final action” – in other words, a “limited set of regulations” needed by refiners, blenders, and importers to meet their statutory requirement for blending.
And, the agency says, it’s not going to hold individual refiners, blenders, or importers to the 2.78 percent blending requirement, but rather will look at these “liable parties” as a collective entity, and will calculate whether the 2.78 percent requirement is met by them as a group as reflected in the national pool of gasoline sold to U.S. consumers in calendar year 2006.
This “direct final action” only applies to 2006, as does the collective approach for calculating compliance, the agency said. For 2007 and beyond, EPA intends to meet its rulemaking deadlines and will also develop and publish an RFS credit trading program, also required by the energy law.
Details of EPA’s action – or inaction, depending on how you want to view it – can be found at www.epa.gov/otaq/renewablefuels, or contact David Korotney at 734-214-4507, or e-mail korotney.david@epa.gov.
South Korea Power Struggle
With Japan, Hong Kong, and a growing list of secondary Asian markets back on board to resume U.S. beef imports – and by all reports, beef already in Japanese mid-size grocery stores is going at seriously premium prices – most figured South Korea would join up in short order. South Korea was the United States’ third largest beef market prior to its 2003 ban. However, the South Koreans are playing hard ball, and while they said previously they’d likely resume U.S. beef purchases with fewer conditions than their neighbors in Japan, word on the street is they want a formal, broad free-trade agreement with the United States to make the deal work.
The first salvo came when one government official in early January said they’d negotiate with the United States “on importing meat only, not bones.” Now, by itself this is an odd statement, but not so odd when you remember beef ribs made up more than 60 percent of pre-ban U.S. beef imports. Also, with the United States watching the North Koreans closely for any new signs of political or military strangeness, the South Korean government must be aware it has political leverage now like never before.
View from Washington - February 2006 Render