Washington: The Biden government is considering reducing the 822 ethanol blending mandate below 15 billion gallons amid counter-attacks from the lobby and trade unions that shrink the ethanol industry industry can no longer support the target, according to two sources familiar with government thinking.
US President Joe Biden vowed to bring normal return to laws that required refiners to combine biofuels such as ethanol into a collection of state gasoline after his predecessor, Donald Trump, took unprecedented steps to relieve refineries from the requirements.
But Biden found it difficult to fulfill his promise.
Pandemic Covid has reduced fuel consumption and triggers some closure of ethanol plants.
Higher regulatory costs have distillers threaten to close refineries and spill high work trade unions.
In December, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposal for a long-awaited biofuel mixture that had cut ethanol requirements for 2020 and 2021 but returned it to 15 billion gallons for 2022.
The farmers and biofuel producers criticized rollback but welcomed this year’s restoration.
However, in recent weeks, administrative officials have considered returning the 15 billion gallon mandate when the last rule was released by the end of this year, the two sources told Reuters.