For Immediate Release
Wednesday
February 3, 2010
Contact Information:
Steve Higley 202-552-8455
NPRA Responds to New Renewable Fuel Standard Guidance for 2010 and Beyond
“While we are still in the process of reviewing these lengthy and complex regulations, we are concerned that a few key provisions evade sound science and may even be unlawful.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, today responded to the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement of regulations for implementing the National Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program in 2010 and the future.
“NPRA has consistently supported the integration of biofuels into the nation’s fuel mix provided that sound science prevails in the process and the letter of the law is followed,” NPRA President Charles T. Drevnasaid. “While we welcome the 2010 guidelines for RFS2 implementation today, our member businesses would have been better served in terms of investment and regulatory certainty to have known these rules months ago as prescribed in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
“While we are still in the process of reviewing these lengthy and complex regulations, we are concerned that a few key provisions evade sound science and may even be unlawful. We are concerned, for example, that politics may have trumped science with regard to the revisions to the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of soy-based biodiesel. We also believe that combining biomass-based diesel volumes from 2009 with 2010 and making portions of the final rule retroactive to January 1, 2010 is unfair and likely unlawful.”
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NPRA members include more than 450 companies, including virtually all American refiners and petrochemical manufacturers. Our members supply consumers with a wide variety of products and services used daily in their homes and businesses. These products include gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants and the chemicals that serve as “building blocks” in making everything from plastics to clothing to medicine to computers.