Legislation: Slow progress with biofuels blending framework

A ‘biofuel blending framework’ is expected to be tabled in Cabinet ‘before the end of next March’, according to Department of Energy chief director responsible for energy planning Thabang Audat (Engineering News), reports Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. Delivering a yet-to-be published speech on behalf of Energy Minister Jeff Radebe at a recent conference in Cape Town, Audat said the regulatory framework will ‘support … the establishment and development of … (SA’s) emerging biofuels industry’ and incentivise local farmers to produce the required feedstock. ‘Targeting 2% of the country’s fuel consumption needs (about 400 000 litres)’, the framework will have three pillars: the mandatory purchase of biofuels by licensed petrol and diesel manufacturers; a biofuels feedstock protocol; and transport-sector-specific standards for biofuels blending.

Gazetted in 2013, regulations on the mandatory blending of biofuels with petrol and diesel eventually came into effect on 1 October 2015. The biofuels feedstock protocol envisaged will ‘regulate and approve … feedstock plans in a way that does not compromise food security and prioritises rain-fed crop production’. By the time the framework eventually comes before Cabinet, three years will have passed since former Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson undertook to table it there for approval. In her 201/17 budget vote speech, Joemat-Pettersson said the framework would outline ‘how the nascent biofuels industry ... (would) be financially supported’ and the projects concerned selected, as Legalbrief Today reported at the time.

A draft position paper released in January 2014 for comment – and on which Legalbrief Today also reported – among other things proposed a set of principles in terms of which eligibility for government support would be determined. These included: the protection of agricultural land rights and scarce natural resources; commitment to industry transformation; and ‘positive rural development’. It was envisaged that the subsidy would be ‘non-exclusionary’ – a somewhat oblique reference to the issue of feeding stock preferences. Among other things, the framework was expected to provide clarity on the formula to be used in determining a reference price for the subsidy offered to bio-ethanol manufacturers.