In Washington, Reuters reports that Brazil and the US haven’t made progress on negotiations regarding a renewal of the ethanol quota for US exports to Brazil that expires in a few months due to Washington’s lack of interest in negotiating further sugar market access in exchange. The Brazilian agriculture minister told Reuters in an interview […]
In Malaysia, the Bernama news agency reports that the country’s palm oil council says the European Union’s sustainability criteria for biofuels banning the oil’s use due to allegedly high indirect land use change impacts should be suspended until the ILUC rule can be proven to be scientifically-based and non-discriminatory. In response to the EU’s rule […]
In Washington, MercoPress reports that the US won’t budge on allowing Brazil to export more limes that are facing phytosanitary trade barriers until the issue of the ethanol import quota and tariff is dealt with. When US ethanol exports pass 150 million liters per quarter, a 30% tariff is slapped on them, which US ethanol […]
In Malaysia, over the weekend, the government threatened to challenge the European Union via the World Trade Organization if the EU continues to phase out palm oil from transportation fuel. Malaysia’s foreign ministry responded to the EU’s plan to phase out palm oil that was published on Wednesday as a “calculated political act” aimed at […]
In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency approved five more 2017 Small Refiner Exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and noted that two more petitions have been received for 2018 exemptions, bringing the total to 39. The backstory Under the RFS, refineries producing transportation fuel must demonstrate each year that they have blended certain volumes […]
In Belgium, Bloomberg reports that the European Union is heading straight into a trade war over palm oil after the European Commission definitively deemed palm oil “unsustainable” although exemptions were made for oil produced by small farmers growing on 2ha or less. Those farmers are thought to not be responsible for deforestation like large-scale plantations […]
In Washington, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed regulatory changes to allow gasoline blended with up to 15 percent ethanol (E15) to take advantage of the 1-psi Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) waiver for the summer months that has historically been applied only to E10. EPA is also proposing regulatory changes to modify elements of the renewable […]
In Washington, Reuters reports that the Environmental Protection Agency should finalize its decisions within the next week whether or not it will grant small refinery hardship waivers for the seven applications still pending from 2017, which then allow it to start analyzing those applications made in 2018. The agency was sued last month by Kern […]
In the Philippines, the government’s Congressional Oversight Committee on Biofuels will conduct a hearing on the Department of Agriculture’s proposal to increase the amount of coconut in biodiesel from the current 2% to 5%. Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol has been pushing for a higher coconut content in biofuels in order to help improve copra […]
In Washington, Reuters reports that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to improve transparency in the RIN market including publicizing large volume trades, prohibiting speculators such as banks and other financial institutions from participating in the market and improving overall price transparency. The plan to eliminate hoarding of RINs would see the EPA publish any time […]
