Policy News

The Swedish Bioenergy Association (Svebio) estimates that the August tax cuts given to biofuels in Sweden had a large effect on commercial transport, but the impact on E85 in private transport was more meagre. “Private motorists seem to not be aware that after 1 August it’s become cheaper for them to fuel their cars with E85 ethanol than petrol if they have flex fuel engines,”…
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The UK government has released its response to the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) recommendations to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. The CCC’s progress report, published in June 2016, focused on its priorities for the UK Government’s forthcoming emissions reduction plan. The response report, however, fails to give high hopes to the renewables industry,…
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The European Commission’s (EC) decision to phase out first-generation biofuels was based on “public opinion” instead of scientific facts, an EU official is quoted as admitting. According to the EurActive news site, EU director of renewables, research, and energy efficiency Marie Donnelly explained the reasoning behind the decision at a conference on 12 October. She is quoted as…
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The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) has released a white paper analysing data recently released by the US Environmental Protection Agency on compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard between 2010 and 2013. The newly available data challenges the widely accepted assumption that the blend wall – the point at which ethanol blending in gasoline exceeds 10% – caused the 2013…
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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the Renewable Enhancement and Growth Support Rule proposing to update both its renewable fuels and other fuels regulations. The EPA is proposing to make several changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) programme regulations that would align them with recent developments in the marketplace to increase production of cellulosic and other…
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Canada’s biofuel policies have reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but subsidies to the industry should be terminated due to their cost, Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission (EFC) says. In a report titled Course Correction: It’s Time to Rethink Canadian Biofuel Policies, EFC examines the extent to which biofuel policies have achieved their objectives and whether they…
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The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) is a major threat to the EU ethanol industry, the European renewable ethanol association ePure warns. The agreement, which is to be discussed by the EU’s trade ministers during the informal European Council meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, on 23 September, could result in 1.2 billion litres of additional duty free imports from…
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Destructive policy towards the ethanol industry in Brussels could continue to drive away billions of euros in investments and cost rural communities tens of thousands of jobs, a European ethanol producer says. Ethanol Europe Renewables (EERL) claims that the European Commission’s (EC) new Low-Emission Mobility Strategy could cause massive losses in incomes, jobs, and the general European…
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Diane Black, member of the US House of Representatives (R-Tenn.), has an act that would extend the biodiesel blenders' tax credit for two years through 2018. The tax credit is set to expire at the end of 2016 unless Congress decides to extend it through Black’s Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel Incentive Extension Act of 2016 (H.R. 5994). Since 2005, the $1.00 per gallon biodiesel…
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China and the US – the top two greenhouse gas emitters in the world – have both agreed to ratify the Paris Agreement, a global framework to limit the effects of climate change. While China had already earlier announced that it would ratify the agreement, the joint announcement has been hailed by climate campaigners as a significant advance in combating global warming, The Guardian…
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In the US, a bipartisan group of 40 senators are calling for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase the biodiesel targets in the newest Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) proposal. The group, including Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.), EPA administrator Gina McCarthy a letter calling on the EPA to raise the 2018 Renewable Volume…
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US policymakers should keep an eye on the renewable identification number (RIN) market to stop possible price manipulation, the Renewable Fuel Association (RFA) calls. In a letter sent to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the ethanol trade association encourages the agencies to “closely examine recent events in the RIN market" to…
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The US Senate has introduced a bill to extend the $1/gallon biodiesel tax credit through 2019 and to transform it from a blenders’ credit to a domestic production credit. The bill mirrors a House of Representatives legislation introduced in May, which had the similar goals of extending the tax credit and revamping it as a producers’ credit. Anne Steckel, VP of federal affairs at the…
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