Today in Washington, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is delaying finalization of the long-awaited 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Renewable Volume Obligations until 2015.

From EPA’s statement, “Today EPA is announcing that it will not be finalizing 2014 applicable percentage standards under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program before the end of 2014. In light of this delay in issuing the 2014 RFS standards, the compliance demonstration deadline for the 2013 RFS standards will take place in 2015.”

The Renewable Fuel Standard is a contentious rule that mandates a prescribed level of biofuels to be blended into petroleum-based fuels. Biofuel producers want a higher level of biofuels blended, and petroleum companies want less. Renewable fuel makers argue that limiting the standard hinders new investment into the renewable fuels industry and hurts existing biofuel makers. This, coupled with recently plunging crude oil prices, puts biofuel companies in a tough position. Consider biofuel producer Kior Inc. Kior converted wood waste and other non-food crops into gasoline and diesel fuel, and just recently went bankrupt.

For more on this issue, read this analysis by Biofuels Digest.

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