US Democratic lawmakers urge Biden not to cut biofuel mandates

A group of US Democratic lawmakers wrote to President Joe Biden Monday to halt the plan to reduce the amount of biofuels oil refineries are required to add to their fuel.

The move, which MPs believe will jeopardize Biden's pledges to protect US agriculture, follows a Reuters report last week that Biden's government is considering major cuts to national biofuel blending regulations.

Although no official announcement has yet been made, news of the plan sparked an outcry among proponents of agriculture and biofuels, who are benefiting from the demands that have helped create a multi-billion gallon market for their products.

The letter comes at a crucial time in Biden's presidency. The Democratic Party is at odds over two pillars of Biden's domestic agenda - a $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill and a $ 3.5 trillion social spending package. The government cannot afford to anger democratic members and lose votes.

MPs like Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota and MP Cheri Bustos from Illinois said in the letter that they have strong reservations about the government's possible moves to remove billions of gallons of biofuel from the 2020-2022 requirements.

"This move would directly undermine your commitment to fighting climate change and restoring the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)," the letter said.

During his presidential campaign, Biden pledged his commitment to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which says refineries must mix billions of liters of biofuels into the country's fuel mix or buy tradable credits from those who do.

Biden has also pledged to pursue aggressive goals to combat climate change in his first year as president. How ethanol, the most widely used biofuel, affects carbon dioxide emissions depends, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration depends on how the fuel is made and whether the land use impact is taken into account.

The admixture requirements for 2020 and 2021 would apply retrospectively, with the requirements for 2021 already delayed by 10 months.

The delay in announcing the proposed mandates has led some to believe that the government is hoping to avoid intra-party conflict before voting on infrastructure and social spending packages.

While the agricultural lobby supports the requirements, the refineries consider them to be too costly and threaten to drive their employees into bankruptcy.

Pennsylvania Republican and Democratic MPs sent separate letters to Biden earlier this month urging his government to reform the RFS to help independent US refiners.