Overview
- A bill presented by Senator Patricia Bullrich would change the biofuels rules to let large grain traders such as Cargill, Bunge, Dreyfus, AGD and Cofco sell bioethanol and biodiesel directly to local refineries.
- Critics say the change could displace roughly 27 small and medium producers that currently supply about one million tonnes a year for Argentina’s mandatory fuel blending.
- Daniel González, the national secretary of Energy and Mining, told the Senate the proposed framework 'has winners, losers, affected,' acknowledging tradeoffs inside government policy.
- The push responds to tighter export markets and idle multinational capacity estimated at about 3 million tonnes per year after trade barriers from the United States, the EU and Peru reduced shipments.
- The reform would tap idle export-oriented plants to expand domestic supply, a move that could lower fuel costs but also shift market power to multinationals and reshape investment outcomes created by earlier law 26.093 and its wave of plant construction.