On Thursday, nearly two-dozen representatives of the U.S. biodiesel industry will testify at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing on its proposed 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard levels. The National Biodiesel Board has warned the proposal will lead to layoffs and plant closures across the U.S. as biodiesel production is reduced. NBB also says it sends a devastating signal to investors – threatening future growth in the biodiesel industry. NBB Vice President of Federal Affairs Anne Steckel says the industry has been running at an annualized rate of about 2-billion gallons since July – displacing 2-billion gallons of petroleum diesel.
She says the EPA can’t cut it almost in half and expect jobs and businesses to survive. Steckel says the frustrating thing about this proposal is that biodiesel is an RFS success story – creating clean-energy jobs the Obama Administration has been pushing for.