by Jarrett Renshaw and Chris Prentice (Reuters)  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded tens of millions of dollars worth of biofuel blending credits for this year to refiners HollyFrontier and Sinclair Oil after they argued …

by Lisa Gibson (Ethanol Producer Magazine) … EcoEngineers’ Director of Engineering Jim Ramm details Kernel Fiber Now, a service that helps producers navigate their options with corn kernel fiber-to-ethanol technologies, RINs and more.
With intense interest …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … But they’re part of the Washington dialogue this month, waivers and easy outs, since reports surfaced in media that the US Environmental Protection Agency granted a Renewable Fuel Standard hardship waiver …

Mario Parker and Jennifer A. Dlouhy (Bloomberg)  The Environmental Protection Agency plans to ask for advice on whether — and how — to boost the transparency of an opaque $9 billion market in biofuel compliance credits …

by Geoff Cooper (Renewable Fuels Association) … Simply put, allowing exported ethanol to count toward compliance with an oil company’s RFS obligation would lead to further demand destruction for U.S. ethanol producers and corn growers who …

by Michael McAdams (Advanced Biofuels Association/Biomass Magazine)  At ABFA, we’ve been keeping our eyes on the U.S. EPA during the first quarter of 2018. The EPA’s actions over the next several months will have ripple effects …

by Jarrett Renshaw (Reuters)  The Trump administration will delay any moves to reform the nation’s biofuel policy for about three months, according to three sources briefed on the matter – a decision one of the sources …

by Todd Neeley (DTN The Progressive Farmer)  Details have yet to emerge from a planned meeting at the White House on Monday between President Donald Trump and members of his cabinet regarding possible changes to the …

by Cindy Zimmerman (Energy.AgWired.com)  Recent actions by EPA have effectively reduced the Renewable Fuel Standard conventional renewable volume obligation (RVO) for 2016 by more than 1 billion gallons, and the agency appears poised to take similar …

(Biotechnology Innovation Organization)  BIO is greatly concerned by the Department of Justice’s and Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Settlement Agreement to resolve a dispute about the PES Holdings’ obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

…
This Settlement Agreement …

by Ron Kotrba (Biomass Magazine)  D7 renewable identification numbers (RINs) generated at a biorefinery in Oklahoma City producing cellulosic diesel fuel have been verified by Weaver and granted Q-RIN status. Weaver is an independent third-party auditor …

by James Osborne (Houston Chronicle)   EPA chief Scott Pruitt raised the idea Monday of limiting Wall Street’s ability to trade the government-issued credits for ethanol and other biofuels in an effort to aid oil refineries.
…
In a meeting …

by Meghan Gordon bankr(Platts)  The White House has postponed a fourth round of talks between refinery and biofuel interests about reforming the US biofuel mandate, according to a refinery source close to the negotiations.
The meeting set …

by Chris Clayton (DTN The Progressive Farmer)   A study commissioned by the country’s largest oil refiner explains how a waiver credit would freeze ethanol demand.
Ethanol industry groups are pointing to several statements in the oil industry’s …

(Renewable Fuels Association)  Another White House meeting has been scheduled for Monday, March 12, to continue discussions between oil refinery and biofuels interests over the price of Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, which were created under …

by Jarrett Renshaw (Reuters)  U.S. President Donald Trump has called a meeting early next week with key senators and Cabinet officials to discuss potential changes to biofuels policy, which is coming under increasing pressure after a …

by Chris Clayton (DTN The Progressive Farmer)  The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission told senators Thursday the Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t been able to provide the CFTC with enough quality data on the biofuels …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has released a memo produced by his energy policy staff that finds that Renewable Fuel Standard blending requirements and the cost of renewable identification numbers (RINs) …

by Bob Dinneen (Renewable Fuels Association/Washington Times)  The oil industry’s campaign to undermine the growth of domestically produced renewable fuels such as ethanol has certainly been ramped up lately. Today they’re callously capitalizing on the financial …

by Joelle Simonpietri (Biofuels Digest)  On Jan 21st 2018, Carlyle-backed Philadelphia Energy Solutions(PES), the largest refinery complex on the U.S. east coast at 335,000 barrels per day, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance costs. In the week …

by Jennifer A Dlouhy and Mario Parker (Bloomberg)  Biofuel mandate overhaul mulled by Congress after bankruptcy; Unions and Pennsylvania politicians seek immediate action  —  The bankruptcy of Philadelphia Energy Solutions LLC, the biggest refiner on the U.S. East Coast, has invigorated efforts …

(American Coalition for Ethanol/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Ron Lamberty, senior vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, updated attendees at the MN Ag EXPO in Mankato, Minnesota, on the changing landscape that allows retailers to offer ethanol-blended …

by Jarrett Renshaw (Reuters)  More than two dozen small U.S. refineries are seeking waivers from the nation’s biofuels law, an unusually high number that reflects growing oil industry resistance to the program, according to sources familiar …

by Lisa Gibson (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   RIN values do affect fuel prices, but Ron Lamberty, senior vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, says it’s not the effect many assume.  —  … A higher RIN, they …

by Todd Neeley (DTN The Progressive Farmer)  President Donald Trump’s administration and some members of Congress want oil and ethanol interests to just get along and work out their differences on the Renewable Fuel Standard. But …

by Jessie Stolark (Environmental and Energy Study Institute)  … The argument is roughly – increased biofuels mandates lead RINs to spike in cost, translating to billions in compliance costs, particularly for small refiners. While somewhat logical, …

(Southern Farm Network Today)  Texas Senator Ted Cruz recently proposed to put a cap on the price of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) as a way to control the cost for refiners that blend renewable fuels into …

by James Osborne (Houston Chronicle)  Attack on federal biofuels mandate provides chance to appeal to base  —  … But for the junior senator, facing re-election this year as Democrats show new swagger in the age of Trump, ethanol …

by James C. Greenwood (Biotechnology Innovation Organization/The Hill)  … The refiners want to lower the price of renewable identification numbers, or RINs, which are the credits they must accumulate to prove compliance with the program — …

by Todd Neeley (DTN/KTIC)  Capping the price of biofuel credits at 10 cents would essentially eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard mandate for biodiesel and possibly hurt corn-based ethanol, according to an analysis by farmdoc at the …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  President Trump has hosted two meetings in recent weeks with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others focused on the Renewable Fuel Standard and renewable identification numbers (RINs). Those representing the …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  On Dec. 7, U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt appeared before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce to provide testimony the mission of the EPA. The Renewable Fuel Standard was …

by Miles Weiss, Jennifer A Dlouhy, and Mario Parker (Bloomberg)  U.S. Attorney for Southern District of N.Y. seeks information; Icahn Enterprises discloses request in securities filing  —  Federal investigators have issued subpoenas for information on Carl Icahn’s efforts …

by Jason Santos (Malaysian Insight)  SABAH’s move for a full compliance of the Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) by 2025 is to ensure the survival of the sector, state forestry director Sam Mannan said.
The move will also …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Industry stakeholders and legal experts discuss the recent RFS court ruling, the ongoing U.S. trade cases against Argentina and Indonesia, and the biodiesel tax credit in context of U.S. EPA’s Notice …

by Jarrett Renshaw and Chris Prentice (Reuters)  Carl Icahn’s refining company CVR Energy (CVI.N) has begun buying biofuel credits for the first time in months, a sign the firm is starting to unwind a massive …

by Bharat Jhunjhunwala (The Free Press Journal)  Recently,  Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurated India’s first refinery plant in Pune that will produce fuel oil from rice and wheat straw, cotton stalk, …

by Eric Wolff (Politico)  The Trump administration plans to reject a proposal that would let oil refiners off the hook for complying with the federal ethanol mandate, a senior administration official told POLITICO, dashing the …

by Jeff Barber (Oil Price Information Service)  The head of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) says the ethanol industry group remains concerned that “market manipulation” is a “significant factor” driving the price of Renewable Identification …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Industrial biotech’s biggest and grandest show, the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology, opened today in Montreal and BIO itself was in the newsframe with a striking report debunking myths around …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The value of cellulosic fuels has reached $4.33 per gallon in the California market. That’s real-world, today, including the energy and the low-carbon attributes, and not based on speculation. The …

by Timothy Gardner (Reuters)  The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission informed eight Democratic U.S. senators last month that it is not investigating biofuels credits after the lawmakers had urged it to probe billionaire Carl Icahn’s …

by Mario Parker (Bloomberg/Southwest Farm Press)  Government work has paid off handsomely for billionaire Carl Icahn.  CVR Energy Inc., his oil refining company, saved about $60 million in the first quarter because of expectations that …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … As you can see from the hard data, the production cost for ethanol today is $1.22 per gallon, which translates to $51.24 per barrel. Now, on an energy basis — …

(Office of Senator Elizabeth Warren)  U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), called on the …

by Max McBrayer (The Hill/RaceTrac Petroleum)  …   My perspective comes from over 30 years in the fuels business. Currently, I am chief supply officer of RaceTrac Petroleum, a fuel retailer and operator of more than …

by Jarrett Renshaw and Chris Prentice  (Reuters)  Biofuels compliance expenses for CVR Energy’s refining unit fell to the lowest level in almost five years during the first quarter, the company said on Thursday, as the …

by Brian Scheid and Meghan Gordon (Platts)  Have refiners’ hopes for a quick rollback of the US biofuel mandate by the Trump administration fizzled out? The industry judged two early appointments as signs of the president’s …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …  There’s a theory going around that biofuels are “government fuels” — and prices are set around a table in Washington, DC. But if you visit the big biodiesel and …

by Susan Olson (BioCycle Magazine)  Because of an all-time high waiver credit value paired with strong advanced RIN prices, renewable natural gas could fetch $35/MMBtu in 2017. Since 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has mandated …

(Biofuels International)  Growth Energy has released economic analysis that it says “identifies numerous problems” associated with changing the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) point of obligation.
The US ethanol trade body strongly supports EPA’s proposed denial to move …

(Platts)  Renewable Identification Numbers traded at 14-month lows Wednesday following news that the Environmental Protection Agency will delay implementation of 30 regulations until March 21, despite industry groups saying 2017 blending mandates are unlikely to …

by David Williams (The Gilmer Mirror)  Incoming President Donald Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” is getting an early test from one of his closest friends.
Billionaire investor and Trump confidant Carl Icahn is requesting changes …

by Brian Dabbs (Bloomberg)  Recent criticism of secrecy and alleged manipulation in biofuel credit trading, delivered by a top adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, is striking a chord among ethanol and other renewable fuel producers.
Those producers …

by Mark Griffin  (Pro Petroleum/Real Clear Energy)  … Moving the point of obligation eliminates our ability to compete and gives major refiners a significant unfair advantage over small businesses in small markets across the country. Liquidity and …

by  John Campbell (Ocean Park Advisors) The RINs market would be improved with timely blend targets and compliance reporting, increased transparency and trading limits.  —  …  Although it might reduce undesirable trading practices, moving the …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Two central questions arise when considering biofuels consumption through 2022, write University of Illinois ag economists Scott Irwin and Darrel Good: “When will domestic consumption of ethanol reach …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The economic drivers behind recent higher ethanol blending rates were examined by Iowa economic researcher Sampath Jayasinghe in the Renewable Energy Report  from the Iowa Agricultural Marketing Resource …

by Bradley Olson  (Wall Street Journal)  Some refiners stand to rake in $1 billion by selling fuel credits, while others must spend millions to comply  —  Environmental regulations designed to boost the amount of ethanol blended …

(Value Walk)  Murphy USA is the largest stand-alone fuel retailer in the United States. The majority of its stores are located adjacent to a Wal-Mart, and they pursue a low-cost, high-volume model. —  …  Lastly, …

by Scott Irwin (Farm Doc Daily/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)  RINs prices have been making headlines in recent months, with prices at times crossing the psychologically important $1 per gallon mark. Echoing earlier complaints (farmdoc …

(Environmental Protection Agency)  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice today announced the filing of a complaint against NGL Crude Logistics, LLC and Western Dubuque Biodiesel, LLC and a settlement …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization released the new white paper, “The Myth of High RIN Prices As Proof of the Blend Wall,” analyzing data recently released by EPA on …

by Brent Erickson (Biotechnology Innovation Organization/Biofuels Digest)  …  Data recently released by EPA refutes the widely held assumption that reaching and exceeding the blend wall caused the 2013 rise in RIN prices. This newly available …

by John Campbell (Biodiesel Magazine/Ocean Park Advisors)  The U.S. EPA has set off a debate within the petroleum industry by suggesting that the point of obligation for compliance with the renewable fuel standard (RFS) be moved …

by Chris Prentice (Reuters)  Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to weigh into a debate over a controversial U.S. biofuels program with a proposal that would back the position of billionaire investor Carl …

by Barbara J Powell (Bloomberg)   …  RINS aren’t the real problem for the Philadelphia refinery, Robert Campbell, head of oil products research for London-based Energy Aspects, said in a telephone interview today.
“East Coast refiners are …

by Irshad Ahmed  (Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels International)  If bioenergy represents a sustainable energy future for the planet, then why must it compete with oil prices to be deemed a feasible energy alternative for the society?
The answer …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … Is there some fundamental reason that the automotive biofuels people haven’t shifted to butanol or iso-butanol or some other compound that would be more compatible with gasoline and the present …

by Brian Scheid and Herman Wang (Platts)  Growing pressure for a federal probe of the opaque market underpinning the Renewable Fuel Standard could bolster efforts to dramatically reform the landmark biofuels policy.
Earlier this month, billionaire investor …

by Brooke Coleman (Bloomberg/Advanced Biofuels Business Council)  … (Carl) Icahn’s ask is pretty simple. He wants the EPA to change the rules midstream to relieve his petroleum refining assets of their obligations.
…
The RFS, for its part, …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … There’s a separate category of RINs for advanced biofuels. These are fuels that have at least a 50% reduction in fossil fuels compared to 2005 baseline gasoline. Overall, to qualify …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Let me see if we got this right. Donald Trump loves the Renewable Fuel Standard  —   Carl Icahn loves Donald Trump   —   Therefore, Carl Icahn hates the Renewable Fuel Standard
With that, …

(Argus Media)  The bank of carryover RINs used to comply with US renewable fuel mandates faces a draw of nearly 500mn RINs this year to meet a stiff blend requirement of 10.1pc of the country’s …

by Alex Guillén (Politico Pro)  The Renewable Fuels Association today asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and EPA to investigate whether anyone is manipulating the market for a key biofuels compliance credit to drum up …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Texas, Reuters is reporting that “Valero Energy expects to get hit with a half-billion-dollar bill in the second half of the year” and the news agency attributed the costs …

by Chris Prentice and Jessica Resnick-Ault (Reuters)  Prices of U.S. biofuels compliance credits jumped in early trade on Wednesday as worries mounted over potential supplies after Goldman Sachs Group signaled potential tightness next year on …

(U.S. Department of Justice)  Thomas Davanzo, of Estero, Florida, and Robert Fedyna, of Naples, Florida, pleaded guilty today for their participation in a multi-state scheme to defraud biodiesel buyers and U.S. taxpayers by fraudulently selling …

by Bob Dinneen (The Hill)  … It’s worth recalling why a bipartisan coalition of policymakers, including President George W. Bush, worked together in 2007 to expand the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires oil companies to …

(Argus Media)  US Environmental Protection Agency administrators should shift the burden of US biofuel blending mandates closer to retail stations, US independent refiner Valero said today.
The company, one of the largest US producers of both …

by Laura Blewitt  (Bloomberg)  Federally mandated ethanol blending is adding extra pressure to the faltering profits of U.S. refiners.
The worst crude oil downturn in a generation, which at first helped refiners’ profits, has now passed through …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … (W)hen you compare them to homogenized, uniform, high-yield, purpose-grown energy crops. residues may be queer, but they are here. Not only available, but reliable, you can count on the …

(OPIS)  The Renewable Fuels Supply Supplement is the first publication in the OPIS Market Trends series and is now available! This supplement is designed to analyze, educate and inform the global downstream industry of the …

by Adam Christensen, Benjamin Hobbs (Science Direct/Applied Energy)  Biofuel policy is under near constant review at both the federal and state level. For example, as part of on-going implementation of the California Low Carbon Fuel …

by Laura Blewitt and Mario Parker (Bloomberg)  … Biodiesel’s become so cheap in the U.S. that some refiners are being paid to use it.  Midwest refiners are paying as little as 64.5 cents a gallon for the fuel …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … So, how fast did petroleum expand production, in comparison to low-carbon renewable fuels? … One thing is clear, renewable fuels are moving fast, by comparison. From 1866 through 1899 (a year …

by Amanda Bilek (Biomass Magazine/Great Plains Institute) …   In the summer of 2014, the USDA released the Biogas Opportunities Roadmap. The release of this roadmap marked the first time that federal agencies made a public commitment …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Is ethanol really worth $3.81 for the octane but costs only $1.39 on the market? How could that be?  Math majors around the country are frequently perplexed by this one. If …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Sometimes, the set-up of the transition from fossil fuels is as pretty and impractical as Dr. Doolittle’s Pushmi-Pullyu. The Digest investigates.  —  … For example, a renewable fuel does not qualify …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Food vs Fuel, biofuels causing corn planting to skyrocket, low oil prices killing off renewable fuels, the subsidy myth, the emissions myth, the “people won’t buy the fuels” myth, and …

by Brent Erickson (Biofuels Digest/Biotechnology Industry Organization) After a painful and damaging two-year delay, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week published Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) for 2014, 2015 and 2016. Unfortunately, the agency finalized a …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The release of the U.S. EPA’s final rulemaking for the renewable fuel standard (RFS) was a shock to the RINs market—the renewable identification numbers used by obligated parties …

by Scott Irwin and Darrel Good (FarmDocDaily)  The EPA released the final rulemaking for 2014-2016 RFS standards on Monday, November 30. This release follows preliminary rulemaking released on May 29 of this year. Figures 1 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … The US Environmental Protection Agency has discovered the following way of interpreting Energy Independence and Security Act.  To wit, if the transportation fuels supply chain — controlled by guess whom …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In the terrestrial world, oxygen is colorless, odorless, and try to get through an hour without some.  In the Bioeconomy Cinematic Universe, oxygen is harder than steel, heavier than a …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Ethanol D6 RIN prices have stayed relatively stable over the summer while D4 biodiesel RINs prices plummeted, Illinois economists Scott Irwin and Darrel Good point out in a recent …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  If the outlook on cellulosic biofuels is relatively bullish in 2015 compared to 2014 — Last year, there were 33.0 million RINs generated for cellulosic biofuels; this year 36.9 million …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Heard dire comments like “POET expects to stop all future U.S. cellulosic investments if EPA’s proposed base renewable fuel requirements are not strengthened.”  Want to understand the substantive concerns on …

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  In early July, the U.S. EPA released renewable identification number (RIN) sales data aggregated by renewable fuel standard (RFS) party type for the first time. The newly released data …

(Platts)  The US Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released, for the first time, data aggregated by the type of organization selling or holding the credits used to demonstrate compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard.
EPA said …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … The program serves almost 200 petroleum marketers that bring renewable fuels to the public across the U.S. Our software based programs decrease compliance burdens (RFS and LCFS) and increase the …

by Robert Rapier (Investing Daily)  … If less fuel is being produced than the mandated level, it drives up the price of the RIN and in theory increases the incentive to produce the fuel (which is …

(Biofuels Digest)  Good morning, my name is Geoff Cooper and I am representing the Renewable Fuels Association.  By any measure, the RFS has been a tremendous success. It has stimulated growth in biofuel production, revitalized …

by Chris Prentice (Reuters)  Oil companies ultimately recover their costs of complying with the U.S. biofuels program, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis that marks the regulator’s clearest challenge yet to a key …

by Chris Prentice (Reuters)  Oil traders are rushing to import ethanol from Brazil for the first time this year after U.S. regulators moved to increase use of advanced biofuel, opening a wide spread in the …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The U.S. EPA’s May 29 proposed renewable volume obligations (RVO) is under scrutiny by University of Illinois economists in recent FarmDocDaily posts.
Jonathan Coppess examines the argument that EPA …

(Renewable Fuels Association)  Retail gasoline prices from 2013 through the first quarter of 2015 were unaffected by prices for “RIN credits” (Renewable Identification Numbers) that are used to demonstrate compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) submitted comments today to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expressing support for a proposed legal agreement that sets specific deadlines for establishing …

(TruMarx Data Partners Inc.)  TruMarx Data Partners Inc., the creator of COMET, an on-demand platform for custom bilateral OTC transactions, announced the introduction of biodiesel and RINs transaction capability.
COMET now supports direct bilateral transactions for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Food vs Fuel, emissions, cost competitiveness, and RINsanity. Some of the most unfair bricks hurled at corn starch-based ethanol — and here’s why. …
In the field of renewable fuels, there’s …

by Mario Parker (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)  The biggest plunge in U.S. gasoline prices since 2008 is slowing as higher ethanol boosts the cost to make the motor fuel.  Ethanol futures surpassed gasoline last month for the first …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Oil prices are down, energy stocks are plunging, and the investor mood is giving Lord of the Flies a run for its money for mix of peril, fantasy and pessimism. …

(Genscape/Biodiesel Magazine)    After the U.S. EPA’s final Quality Assurance Plan rule established a new, unified QAP program over the summer, Q-RINs have been successfully transferred in the RIN market. “[In December] we received confirmation …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  How does $60 oil impact payback for natgas or hybrid electric vehicles, and cellulosic biofuels?  The going assumption is that low oil prices are bad for alternative fuels — but …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … To Aemetis, a route to improved margins that will also help the environment. Here’s how.
News arrives from Aemetis, via its latest SEC filings, that the company has “entered into …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  How does the Congressional Budget Office look at biofuels and the Renewable Fuel Standard?
How does $3.00-$6.00 advanced biofuels RINs? A $0.26 per gallon hike in gasoline prices? A $1.27 drop …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Cellulosic ethanol production could contribute up to 9 million cellulosic D3 renewable identification numbers (RINs) in 2014, if active plants achieve full capacity in the last four months …

(PR WEB)  DuPont Industrial Biosciences (DuPont) today announced the selection of Murex LLC to market the cellulosic ethanol produced from its 30-million-gallon-per-year plant in Nevada, Iowa. Upon completion, the facility will be the largest cellulosic …

by Scott Irwin (University of Illinois)  The EPA is apparently going to finalize 2014 RFS rules in the near future.  This will at least temporarily bring the tumultuous process to an end that started with …

by Nick Paulson (Farm Doc Daily/University of Illinois)   … However, D4 generation has rebounded substantially since February, averaging more than 227 million RIN gallons from March through June. Through June, a total of 1.209 billion D4 …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  The synergies between co-located ethanol and biodiesel production have been discussed for a decade. The existing infrastructure to share process essentials, an in-house feedstock in distillers corn oil (DCO), and use of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuel Digest)  Thought the 2014 volume debate over the Renewable Fuel Standard was tough enough?What about the ticking bomb inside the RFS — that could completely flat-line the value of cellulosic RINs …

by  Rob Johansson and Seth Meyer (FarmDocDaily/USDA) Building on the discussion of RIN pricing and stock holding (here) we explore what a ‘healthy’ RIN bank may look like, estimate RIN stocks for 2014. The availability of RIN stocks …

by Rob Johansson and Seth Meyer (USDA/FarmDocDaily)  … It is clear that the bankable (and borrowable) nature of RINs allow obligated parties to optimize their compliance costs over time.  In the past, pre-blendwall, it was relatively inexpensive to generate …

by Scott Irwin (FarmDocDaily/University of Illinois)  … The purpose of today’s post is to show that the recent behavior of prices in the RINs market suggests the odds of the EPA reversing the proposed write down …

by Steven Mufson (The Washington Post)  The “now hiring” sign is up online for Emmetsburg, Iowa, where the nation’s largest maker of ethanol used for motor fuel is putting the final touches on a manufacturing …

by Cezary Podkul (Reuters)  Swiss trading company Vitol SA is among the biggest beneficiaries of an opaque U.S.-government-mandated trading scheme established to help boost the share of ethanol in the nation’s fuel supply, market sources …

(Center For Agricultural And Rural Development/PR NewsWire/Yahoo!Finance)  A new analysis by Iowa State University economists Bruce A. Babcock and Sebastien Pouliot of the EPA’s ethanol market system finds that it works effectively and as intended …

(Agri-Pulse)  The Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy and the Biotechnology Industry Organization filed Friday a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the …

by Cezary Podkul (Reuters)  Thirteen U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday urged the derivatives market regulator to examine fraud and manipulation in the cash market for ethanol blending credits known as RINs, as political scrutiny of the …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine)   What’s behind the plunge in renewable identification number (RIN) prices? University of Illinois economist Scott Irwin examined the question in another of his ongoing series of FarmDocDaily posts following …

by Brent Erickson (Roll Call/Biotechnology Industry Organization)  … What’s really behind this year’s rapid rise in the price of RINs? And will their cost be passed to consumers at the pump?
A simple exercise in following the …

by Christopher Doering   (Des Moines Register)  As controversy swells over the cost of special credits tied to ethanol, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley asked the agency charged with overseeing the country’s renewable policy for details …

by Greg Akagi    (KansasAgNetwork)  Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today called on the Commodities Future Trading Commission to review recent allegations about possible …

by Gretchen Morgenson and Robert Gebeloff (The New York Times)  …But a little known market in ethanol credits has also become a hot new game on Wall Street.
…But many people believe that is what happened …

by Mike Lux (Huffington Post)  …If the 2009 financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that market manipulation and speculation is a recipe for disaster. Four years later, we don’t seem to have learned our lesson. …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …Based on our industry sources, here’s an outline for a “change the RFS” outcome – what that might look like.   We see four key elements — ethanol, drop-ins, biodiesel and …

by Bob Dinneen (Renewable Fuels Association/Pottstown Mercury) I am writing in response to Senator Pat Toomey’s Op-Ed that ran in The Mercury entitled “Federal regulations threaten Pa. refineries.”
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is not threatening refiners …

by Steve Everly  (Kansas City Star)  … Ethanol has so far reduced the need for petroleum in gasoline by about 7 percent, which no other alternative fuel has come close to doing.
But a shift is already …

by Patrick Meehan and Pat Eiding  (The Wall Street Journal)  The price of EPA compliance rose 3,625% since the end of 2012.
…
As a display of regulatory failure at its finest, current regulations place the compliance obligation …

(Platts)  US RINs prices continued to slide Wednesday, reflecting a widespread morning market selloff and despite a later bounce after US gasoline stocks data was released.
All current-year RINs assessments fell for the sixth time in …

By Sabina Zawadzki (Reuters)  For U.S. refiners facing a multibillion-dollar bill linked to the soaring cost of renewable fuel credits, a U.S. move toward easing biofuel mandates brought to mind the first step in breaking …

by Gregory Meyer (Financial Times)  …The credits, known as renewable identification numbers, jumped to a record $1.25 per gallon early on Monday, surpassing previous levels reached in March, according to Starfuels, a broker.
US federal law …

(American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers/PR NewsWire)  The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) highlight the testimony of Valero Energy Corporation Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer William R. Klesse who testified before the Senate Committee …

by Cezary Podkul (Reuters/CNBC)  Importing cheap Brazilian ethanol into the United States could become much less profitable next year if a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to expand tough documentation and transportation rules to …

by Mario Parker (Bloomberg)  Renewable Identification Numbers for ethanol rose to record levels on concern the U.S. won’t adjust consumption targets.
RINs, the credits that help the Environmental Protection Agency track whether refiners are meeting federal …

by Gerard Wynn (Reuters)  Biodiesel could in future ease so-called ethanol “blend wall” concerns facing the U.S. transportation fuel industry, whose capacity to blend corn ethanol in gasoline is nearing its physical limit.
The biodiesel industry …

by John Davis (DomesticFuel.com)  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) figures for Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) shows in 2.5 billion 2012 RINs across the biodiesel (D4), advanced (D5), and renewable (D6) categories. Of this total, just over …

by Mario Parker (Bloomberg)  …“The only thing that worries me is the gasoline demand category,” said Jason Ward, an analyst at Northstar Commodity Investments Inc. in Minneapolis. “It’s key because if you start fading on gasoline demand, …

(Reuters/Chicago Tribune)  The battle between CME Group Inc. and the IntercontinentalExchange moves to the market for biofuel credits next month.
CME will launch contracts to trade renewable identification numbers (RINs) on May 13, two weeks after …