Anticipating growing demand for cleaner-burning fuel, SeQuential Pacific Biofuels seeks to expand.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Anticipating growing demand for cleaner-burning fuel from the passage of the Clean Fuels program, Eugene-based SeQuential Pacific Biofuels seeks to expand.
From the Portland Business Journal:
Tyson Keever, president and co-founder, said to expansion was driven by Senate Bill 324. The bill lifted a sunset on Oregon’s Clean Fuels program. Gov. Kate Brown signed it into law May 12 following a contentious hearing in the House of Representatives. Clean Fuels requires lower carbon transportation fuels in Oregon and is designed to cut the state’s transportation-related green house gas emissions by 10 percent in 10 years.
A coalition including the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers and the American Trucking Association is suing to stop the law on constitutional grounds in U.S. District Court of Oregon in March. The case is pending. Keever said the Clean Fuels program fits the company’s mission to encourage healthier lives. And, critically, it triggered a public conversation around biofuels.
In the Oregon Legislature, a transportation funding package has stalled as Republicans refuse to pass transportation legislation until the Clean Fuels program is repealed.
PBJ reports in a separate story:
So far, they’ve held true to that threat, despite broad support for a sweeping transportation package. Nearly every major business group in the state has it at the top of its priority list, and just this week a group of 44 Oregon mayors signed a letter urging lawmakers to pass a measure. Gov. Kate Brown, meanwhile, has said she won’t adjourn the session without a transportation deal in hand. Democrats don’t need Republicans to pass a transportation bill in the Senate, where they hold a supermajority. But they need at least one Republican vote in the House, and the caucus to date is standing firm. Sen. Lee Beyer, a Eugene Democrat and leader in both transportation and clean fuels talks, told the Bend Bulletin he’s open to ideas:
“Democrats in the Senate, I mainly, have made a lot of different options. We essentially said we’re willing to consider all kinds of changes to clean fuels,” he said. “We can’t repeal it unless we replace it with something else. We can modify it, we can delay it. There’s a lot of things we can talk about. Let’s talk.”
