[May 04, 2015]

RFS Policy Instability Has Chilled Advanced and Cellulosic Biofuel Investments, BIO Says

EPA's delays in rulemaking for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) over the past two years have chilled necessary investment in advanced and cellulosic biofuels just as they reached commercial deployment. The industry has experienced an estimated $13.7 billion shortfall in investment as a result, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) finds in an analysis released today.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO's Industrial & Environmental Section, stated:

"Cellulosic and advanced biofuel producers have now reached commercial status, enabling them to build additional biorefineries based on proven technology with lower risk and reduced costs. But just as the industry reached this stage of commercialization, EPA rulemaking delays generated instability in the RFS program and intolerable investment uncertainty. The policy instability is responsible for chilling as much as $13.7 billion in investments that the advanced biofuel industry needed to build capacity to meet the RFS goals. The chill in investment has had the heaviest impact on cellulosic biofuel developers. The delays in rulemaking have also undercut the industry's ability to create new employment opportunities, resulting in the loss of more than 80,000 direct jobs."

BIO has tracked the advanced biofuel industry's development and construction of biorefineries since 2009. To date, the industry has invested more than $5 billion in first-of-a-kind demonstration and commercial-scale biorefineries around the world. The analysis finds that as of April 2015, there are five commercial cellulosic biorefineries with a combined capacity of more than 50 million gallons within the United States and registered to meet the goals of the RFS, along with several pilot and demonstration plants. Additional commercial biorefineries are under construction. These advanced biorefineries employ 5,125 scientists, engineers and operations personnel. Construction of these facilities has created an additional 8,600 fulltime positions over the past five years.

Copies of the analysis can be downloaded at https://www.bio.org/articles/estimating-chilled-investment-advanced-biofuels-due-rfs-uncertainty.

About BIO

BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world's largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIOtechNOW is BIO's blog chronicling "innovations transforming our world" and the BIO Newsletter is the organization's bi-weekly email newsletter. Subscribe to the BIO Newsletter.

Upcoming BIO Events

BioEquity Europe
May 19-20, 2015
Vienna, Austria

BIO Executive Training Courses
June 13-15, 2015
Philadelphia, PA

BIO International Convention
June 15-18, 2015
Philadelphia, PA

World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology
July 19-22, 2015
Montréal, Canada

BIO Latin America Conference
October 14-16, 2015
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

BIO Investor Forum
October 20-21, 2015
San Francisco, CA (News - Alert)

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