WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a letter today to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) , U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King joined with 30 of their colleagues in urging the agency to act on long-delayed biodiesel production standards in order to provide certainty to the biodiesel industry and protect jobs.

“EPA’s recent actions have neither reflected industry capacity nor biodiesel’s separate treatment under the RFS,” the Senators wrote in their letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “The recent delay has only compounded the effects from the November 2013 RFS proposed rule which did not adequately reflect biodiesel production levels. These actions continue to create tremendous uncertainty and hardship for the U.S. biodiesel industry and its thousands of employees. Plants have reduced production and some have been forced to shut down, resulting in layoffs and lost economic productivity. We urge you to get biodiesel back on schedule under the statutorily prescribed Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) process and quickly issue volumes for 2014 at the actual 2014 production numbers. We also hope you move forward on the 2015 and 2016 biodiesel volumes in a timely manner, ensuring that these delays do not become the norm for the industry.”

In the letter, the Senators expressed concern about recent biodiesel layoffs and plant closures, and highlighted the need for the agency to set production levels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Without certainty from the EPA, many biodiesel producers have been forced to decrease production or idle it entirely. According to a study from the National Biodiesel Board, almost 80% of U.S. biodiesel producers scaled back production in 2014.

The uncertainty caused by EPA’s delay in setting production levels negatively affects Maine Standard Biofuels, a Portland-based company that manufactures biodiesel from feedstocks including left-over cooking grease collected from hundreds of New England restaurants, and the economic ripple effects could also impact the many businesses that turn to the eco-friendly fuel company for a renewable power source.  Those businesses include Oakhurst Dairy and Seadog Brewery.

The full text of the senators’ letter to EPA Administrator McCarthy can be read HERE.

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