Caribbean ethanol industry says US EPA rules “could shut down our industry”

In Jamaica, the Caribbean Basin Ethanol Producers Group, which consists of Trinidad Bulk Traders., Gasohol de El Salvador, LAICA of Costa Rica, Petrojam, Jamaica Ethanol, and Jamaica Broilers Group issued a joint statement that passage of the proposed EPA rule for the US Renewable Fuel Standard “could shut down our industry.”

The operators of dehydration facilities convert Brazilian hydrous ethanol to US-compliant anhydrous ethanol, and in the process of “manufacturing” qualifying the biofuel to enter the US tariff-free, under the Caribbean Basin initiative. The group said that the proposed RFS2 feedstock tracking is impossible to execute. Under the proposed rule, the producers would have to verify that the hydrous ethanol they receive is made from sugarcane land previously in production, instead of newly converted land that is subject to an indirect land use change penalty.

The producers said that hydrous ethanol is mixed and that individual sources are impossible to track. The Caribbean producers said that they have requested grandfathering as an alternative to having to comply with the rule. The final rule is scheduled to be released December 1st.

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