The ethanol and petroleum industries have traditionally been at odds over EPA’s renewable fuel standard, but the adversaries found themselves on the same page when they both asked the agency this week to reduce the cellulosic ethanol blending requirement for 2013.

The Renewable Fuels Association, in its comments to EPA on the proposed renewable fuel standard rule, asked the agency to reduce its proposed 14 million gallon cellulosic requirement to “better coincide with the latest projections of actual production.” No cellulosic ethanol has been produced so far in 2013, according to EPA.

It was a pivot for the ethanol industry, which has previously defended EPA’s cellulosic ethanol mandates, even though the industry has failed to produce the fuel at commercial scale for the past three years. The shift comes after judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on Jan. 25, vacated EPA’s 2012 cellulosic ethanol requirement and ordered the agency to set cellulosic ethanol blending mandates that reflect actual production estimates rather than “aspirations.”

EPA told the court it would also voluntarily reconsider the standard for 2011—a year in which no cellulosic ethanol was produced—as a result of the D.C. Circuit's decision.

The Renewable Fuels Association is now cautioning EPA against getting too aggressive with its cellulosic ethanol production estimates for 2013. It’s a rhetorical turn from just a year ago when the Advanced Ethanol Council, a Renewable Fuels Association subgroup, opposed a petition from the petroleum industry to retroactively waive the 2011 cellulosic standard after no fuel was produced that year. In a Feb. 16, 2012 letter to EPA, Advanced Ethanol Council Executive Director R. Brooke Coleman urged EPA to deny the retroactive waiver request, arguing the mandate was necessary to spur investment.

“Cellulosic biofuel technology is ready and cellulosic ethanol producers are starting to break through commercially in very difficult economic times,” Coleman said. “Consistent and reasonable implementation of the RFS is the key point of stasis in the marketplace that will allow the vision embodied by the federal RFS to become a reality.”

Though ethanol producers like to accuse the petroleum industry of impeding implementation of the renewable fuel standard, increasingly they’re finding themselves on the same rhetorical side.