Renewable Diesel Oregon

Oregon followed California’s lead in establishing a low carbon fuel standard type program.  Their program, the Clean Fuels Program (CFP) started several years after California’s, which paved the road for biomass-based diesel.

In California it took about 10 quarters of activity before biodiesel began to start making its stride.  Biodiesel blending in California amounted to 5.5 million gallons in the first quarter of 2013 before popping to 14 million in the second quarter.  Renewable diesel caught on somewhat quicker within the Golden State with quarterly output advancing from 843,696 in the third quarter of 2012 to 6.5 million gallons in Q4 2012.  Renewable diesel bounded higher again in the second quarter of 2013, leaping from 8.2 million to 23.6 million gallons and setting its dominance at that point.

Want to know more? Look at our Renewable Fuels & Feedstocks Outlook Report

Biodiesel and renewable diesel took slightly differing paths in Oregon.  Biodiesel has operated at a steady 10 to 16 million gallons per quarter range since the program started.  This is likely due to local production capacity of 17 million gallons per year at SeQuential.  Renewable diesel did not have a steady path into Oregon and with stronger LCFS credit prices within California, there was little reason to ship RD to Oregon at that point.

The Oregon market took two years before any renewable diesel registered within the program and another two years before there was more than a million gallons of renewable diesel consumed within one quarter.  However, Q2 2019 interest in RD increased from 456 million gallons to 11.3 million in Q3.  RD has not hit that level again but has been holding near seven million gallons per quarter recently.  Renewable diesel in Oregon could get a boost in 2021 as Red Rock Biofuels is expected to begin operations in the second or third quarter of the year. Also, given all the potential renewable diesel projects under development, Oregon is likely to benefit from the additional oncoming supply. Red Rock is projected to be a 16.1 million gallon per year operation that expects to produce renewable diesel from woody biomass and pre commercial trimmings.  Look for Red Rock to help Oregon further its stride into renewable fuels as the CFP targets July 2022 for its formal rule making covering the programs expansion targets.