Part 1: Biofuels exemptions framework and guidelines

Responsibility for administering the Biofuels Act 2007 has been formally transferred from the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading to the Minister for the Environment. Minister Sharpe has requested that EPA be the responsible agency for administering and enforcing the Act.

1.1 Purpose

The Biofuels exemptions framework and guidelines provide information about the exemptions framework that applies under the Biofuels Act 2007 and the Biofuels Regulation 2022.

The Guidelines do not limit nor expand the range of circumstances that may justify the grant of an exemption. The Guidelines set out the approach that will generally be taken to exemption applications, but each application will be considered in relation to its own facts and circumstances.

1.2 What are the biofuels requirements?

The Act and the Regulation require volume fuel retailers to ensure that:

• 6% of the total volume of petrol sold is ethanol (in petrol-ethanol blend)
• 2% of the total volume of diesel sold is biodiesel, and
• at each of the volume fuel retailer’s service stations, petrol-ethanol blend is available for sale in a manner that makes it as accessible to customers as regular unleaded petrol or any other type of petrol at that service station.

These 3 requirements are referred to in this document as the minimum biofuels requirements.

A volume fuel retailer is a person who operates or controls the operation of:

• a volume fuel service station, or
• 20 or more service stations, none of which are volume fuel service stations.

A volume fuel service station is a service station at which:

• 3 or more types of petrol or diesel fuel are sold, and
• the total volume of petrol and diesel sold at the service station exceeds 1,800,000 litres over a 6-month period for 2 consecutive periods.

Volume fuel retailers must also register with NSW Fair Trading and provide reports detailing the total volume of fuels sold during each 6-month period.