Biodiesel advocates feel respect after feds raise mandate by 28%

Brad Albin, president of Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, and Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board, were thrilled to see the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approve a 28-percent increase in the amount of biodiesel that will be mandated for the nation's diesel engine vehicles in 2013. Up until last year, under the 2007 Renewable Fuels Act, biodiesel had been sort of a stepchild to ethanol. Ethanol enjoyed large mandates with the passage of that bill, but biodiesel was later added at 800 million gallons per year in 2011 and one billion in 2012. That number has been increased to 1.28 billion gallons for 2013.

"I want to thank President Obama and his staff for listening to our concerns and recognizing the value and potential of America's Advanced Biofuel – biodiesel," Albin said. National Biodiesel Board's Jobe said the increase "represents a modest increase from the industry's record production last year of nearly 1.1 billion gallons and puts the industry on course for steady, sustainable growth in the coming years."

The EPA noted that the biodiesel industry is already producing at a rate consistent with an annual volume of about 1.3 billion gallons. This is bigger than the recycled waste biodiesel of old. Bio-based diesel products are defined as being advanced biofuels derived from biomass sources that include vegetable oils and wastes oils from renewable sources. And there more and more of it.