In August the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the 2013 annual percentage standards for the RFS program for biofuel, biomass based diesel, biofuels and renewable fuels. These standards will apply to all gasoline and diesel produced or imported in 2013. The EPA also provided more lead time to obligated parties to demonstrate compliance with the 2013 standards by extending the compliance deadline from February 2014 to June 30, 2014. The EPA recognized there are constraints in the market’s ability to consume renewable fuels at the volumes specified in the Clean Air Act in future years. The EPA anticipates making adjustments to the 2014 volume requirements to address market conditions.

The EPA recognized ethanol will likely continue to predominate the renewable fuel pool in the near future, and that for 2014 the ability of the market to consume ethanol in higher blends such as E15 is highly constrained as a result of infrastructure and market-related factors. The EPA said it does not foresee the market consuming enough ethanol sold in blends greater than E10 to meet the volumes of total renewable fuel required by federal law in 2014.

The EPA expects to adjust the 2014 volume requirements by estimating the available supply of biofuels and assess the ethanol blendwall and propose new volume requirements. However, the EPA has denied requests for reconsideration of the 2013 diesel standard. According to federal law, 16.55 billion gallons of ethanol blend gasoline with a 9.74% standard need to be consumed in 2013 to meet the renewable fuels standard.

MRAA strongly supports repeal of the renewable fuels standard and continued testing of the mechanical effects of higher ethanol blends on marine engines.