Biobased Products News and Policy Report

Federal

Restoring The Commitment To Renewable Fuels

On September 7, 2018, U.S. Congressman David Young (R-IA) introduced, in a bipartisan effort with U.S. Congressman Collin Peterson (D-MN), the Restoring Our Commitment to Renewable Fuels Act. Under this bill, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would be required “[t]o provide for reallocation of the renewable fuel obligation of exempted small refineries under section 211(o) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7545(o)) to other refineries, blenders, distributors, and importers, and for other purposes.”  As a response to EPA’s 2019 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO) proposal, the bill aims to address issues related to the former EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, and his decision to undercut the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) through “hardship” waivers received by refineries. Calling for greater transparency within EPA’s decisions on issuing these waivers, this Act holds EPA accountable to meet and maintain the RVOs set annually. The bill also calls for the reallocation of each gallon of renewable fuel covered by these exemptions.

DOE

BETO To Host Webinar On An Estimation Tool To Aid Commercialization And R&D For Catalytic Materials

On September 11, 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced it would be presenting a Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy Consortium (ChemCatBio) webinar entitled “CatCost: An Estimation Tool to Aid Commercialization and R&D Decisions for Catalytic Materials” on Wednesday, September 26, 2018, from 2:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. (EDT).  CatCost is a catalyst cost estimation tool developed by DOE to more accurately estimate costs early in the catalyst development process prior to commercialization.  DOE states that the webinar will “detail the methods used by CatCost, discuss how the tool was validated using commercially available materials, … provide pre-commercial estimate examples[,]” and “include a tutorial on how to use CatCost.”  Registration is available online.

Events

5th Biotechnology World Congress Announced For 2019

The 5th Biotechnology World Congress has been scheduled to take place in Bangkok, Thailand, from February 13-15, 2019.  The Welcome Letter states that the conference will “feature a variety of lectures in a number of key sessions in biotechnology, including a commercial exhibition and poster sessions” and the sessions given will include “strategic alliances in biotechnology, pharmaceutical biotechnology, medical biotechnology, plant and environmental biotechnology, bioprocess engineering, and industrial biotechnology.”  A list of the speakers and presentations that have already been scheduled is posted.  The event has put out a call for speakers and posters.  The deadline of abstract submissions for lecture and poster presentation is December 31, 2018; more information on how to apply is available online.

Other News