The National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA), American Petroleum Institute (API) and Western States Petroleum Association have jointly filed a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that seeks to waive an agency mandate related to cellulosic biofuel.
The trade groups explain that EPA regulations for 2011 outlined that refiners were supposed to source a total of 6 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels during the course of the year. However, the NPRA says no fuel was produced from early 2010 through October 2011, making compliance moot.
‘Refiners are being ordered to do the impossible – use large volumes of cellulosic biofuels even though none has been produced,’ says NPRA President Charles Drevna.
NPRA and API originally sent a petition to the EPA in February 2011 asking the agency to reconsider the mandate, but no decision was made. The groups are now requesting that the agency make ‘a more expeditious decision based on NPRA's prior requests for adjusted cellulosic biofuel targets.’
