In a letter to President Barack Obama, a bipartisan group of 52 Congressmen are urging the administration not to lower the biofuel standard. The Congressmen said, “Should EPA choose not to raise biodiesel’s volume above 1.28 billion gallons, we believe it will have a terrible impact on the domestic biodiesel industry, and could lead to the closure of numerous biodiesel plants, with smaller producers taking the largest impact.”
Congressmen Collin Peterson (D-MN) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) organized the letter. Last November, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) rule would lower the biofuel RFS to 1.28 billion gallons. Biodiesel production in 2013 was estimated at 1.7 billion gallons. It is estimated current capacity is 2.1 billion gallons per year.