U.S. proposes cutting biofuels requirements due to 'market realities'
Source: Reuters
ENVIRONMENT | Wed Jul 5, 2017 | 4:13pm EDT
U.S. proposes cutting biofuels requirements due to 'market realities'
By Chris Prentice, Jarrett Renshaw and David Shepardson | NEW YORK
The U.S. government on Wednesday proposed reducing the volumes of biofuel required to be used in gasoline and diesel in 2018, in a move that could mark the first step toward a broader overhaul to the controversial energy policy.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal marked a slight decline from current levels of biofuels required to be blended in gasoline and diesel and was over 20 percent below targets laid out in a 2007 law, the agency said in a statement.
The agency said it had begun preparations to reset future biofuel volume targets, a move likely to inflame tensions between the oil and corn industries.
The proposal marks the first plan for U.S. biofuels usage announced under President Donald Trump, who has promised to cut regulations on industry. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has become a battlefield between entrenched corn and oil interests. Petroleum companies say the biofuel targets are impossible to meet and add billions in costs. The law has been a boon to agriculture, supporting economies across the corn belt.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biofuels-idUSKBN19Q27M