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NBB files petition to reverse EPA decision

The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has filed a petition asking EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to reverse the EPA’s decision to streamline biodiesel imports from Argentina into the United States under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The Biodiesel Board says the EPA’s decision in January would allow Argentinian biodiesel producers to “rely on a survey plan being implemented by a third party” to show feedstocks compliance, making it “the first country to use a survey approach under the RFS.”

The board says many of the soybeans processed into soybean oil in Argentina come from other countries including Uruguay, Peru and Brazil.

The NBB is asking the EPA to reconsider its approval “to allow for a more transparent process” adding that Argentina has a cost-distorting export tax allowing its biodiesel to “undercut domestic prices.”

With the EPA two years behind on setting up volumes under the RFS, the Biodiesel board says there is just too much uncertainty in the US biodiesel industry already, which has led to plant shutdowns and lost jobs.