Agricultural News
Ag and Biofuel Groups React Favorably to Renewable Fuel Standard Announcement from EPA on Wednesday
Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:48:43 CSTThere is a substantial amount of reaction from ag groups and biofuel advocates to the Wednesday announcement by the Obama Administration regarding the revised Renewable Fuel Standard and other plans unveiled by the Administration. Here is a sampling.
Growth Energy, the coalition of U.S. ethanol supporters, issued the following statement after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its final regulation on an expanded Renewable Fuels Standard:
"Growth Energy commends the Obama White House and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson for recognizing the value of domestic ethanol both as a low-carbon fuel and as a U.S. jobs creator. The expanded Renewable Fuels Standard released today rightly puts an emphasis on America's growth energy ethanol and that in turn will help our economic recovery, strengthen our national security and clean our skies," Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, said. "We've given a quick analysis to a very lengthy and technical rule that will require further study to determine the full implications for our industry."
"There are several improvements to the rule from when EPA first proposed the expanded RFS last year. First, we're pleased with the decision to make volume levels of domestic ethanol retroactive to the first of the year this is a significant step toward reducing dependence on foreign oil, creating U.S. jobs, and improving the environment," Buis said.
"Further, we're pleased that EPA recognizes grain ethanol as a low-carbon fuel, and changed its indirect land use change penalty from its original proposal last year. However, while we appreciate that EPA recognizes the uncertainty of ILUC, the fact remains that ILUC is still in the rule. This puts the cart before the horse, and our position is that ILUC should not be applied in regulation until we have a thorough, long-term study of the issue.
"Further, by using skewed ILUC calculations, the RFS gives Brazilian sugarcane ethanol preferred status as an advanced biofuel. I don't think that was the intent of Congress when it passed the Energy Independence and Security Act. It won't make the U.S. any more energy independent by switching our addiction from foreign oil to foreign ethanol."
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's newly released regulations implementing an expanded federal Renewable Fuel Standard are significant because they provide further evidence of corn ethanol's superiority over conventional gasoline when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, the National Corn Growers Association said.
"We're pleased the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognizes that corn ethanol provides a distinct advantage over conventional gasoline when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, with a reduction of more than 21 percent in some cases," said NCGA President Darrin Ihnen. "This means that all corn ethanol including existing grandfathered capacity and new production will qualify to meet the conventional biofuels targets in the RFS.
NCGA continues to be disappointed that EPA chose to use the flawed theory of international indirect land use change in their calculations. Ihnen stressed that the EPA should reject the unproven theory of international indirect land use change, which assumes that growing more corn means planting corn on a proportionately greater amount of acreage and will impact other crops or natural resources on a global basis. Today's yield trends show this to be false. 2009's record corn yield was 165.2 bushels per acre, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 11 bushels higher than 2008 and nearly 15 bushels higher than 2007.
"In 2009, corn growers were challenged with one of the worst growing season in generations, and we still brought in a record crop and yield," Ihnen, a corn grower in Hurley, S.D., said. "We grew more corn than we did in 2007, the last record year, and we did so on nearly 7 million fewer acres."
Further, the idea of international indirect land use is applied only in the case of corn ethanol. "This is the perfect example of bad science being applied unfairly, " Ihnen said. "Removing the impacts from the international indirect land use theory means that corn ethanol actually provides a 52 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to gasoline. The EPA is not considering similar indirect impacts of petroleum-based fuels, so why are they so stringent when it comes to green, renewable corn ethanol?"
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Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated the final rule for implementation of the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2). Among other provisions, the RFS will set mandatory blend levels for renewable fuels while implementing a framework for carbon emissions calculations that will be the basis for future carbon reductions from fuel.
"EPA was right to recognize that ethanol from all sources provides significant carbon benefits compared to gasoline," said Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen. "As structured, the RFS is a workable program that will achieve the stated policy goals of reduced oil dependence, economic opportunity, and environmental stewardship."
"The RFS is the public policy building block upon which America's renewable fuels industry will be built. Today's industry and tomorrow's ethanol producers require stable federal policy that provides them the market assurances they need to commercialize new technologies," Dinneen continued. "To that end, EPA has achieved that goal."
According to EPA's modeling, corn-based ethanol achieves a 21% greenhouse gas reduction compared to gasoline when dubious ideas of international indirect land use change (ILUC) are included. Without ILUC, corn-based ethanol achieves a 52% GHG reduction. Cellulosic ethanol achieves GHG reduction of 72-130% depending upon feedstock and conversion process. All GHG reductions for ethanol exceed those mandated by the RFS2.
"EPA has correctly credited cellulosic and other next generation ethanol technologies with dramatic GHG improvements over gasoline," said Dinneen. In addition, EPA rightly and justifiably adjusted some of its assumptions and modeling from its proposed rule to more accurately reflect the carbon profile of grain-based ethanol in the U.S. "These necessary corrections ensure that all grain-based ethanol will be eligible to meet the requirements and achieve the stated goals of the RFS, though continue to shortchange grain-based ethanol's climate contributions," noted Dinneen.
Disappointingly, however, EPA continues to rely on oft-challenged and unproven theories such as international indirect land use change to penalize U.S. biofuels to the advantage of imported ethanol and petroleum.
Still, despite the reliance on unproven science, the greenhouse gas benefits of all ethanol show tremendous improvements compared to gasoline. In creating the RFS, EPA engaged in a good faith effort with all interested parties and developed a program that will achieve the fossil fuel replacement goals outlined in the legislation. The RFA has worked tirelessly with Congress and the EPA to not only craft this policy in 2005 and then again in 2007, but to make it a workable program. At the end of the day, the RFS is public policy that can and will work effectively.
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The following is a statement by Bob Stallman, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation in reaction to the EPA announcement of the final rule on the new Renewable Fuel Standard.
"America's farmers and ranchers are encouraged that the rule announced today by the administration will help keep the nation's renewable fuel standards on a path toward greater energy independence. By raising the volume of biofuels available for our nation's transportation fuel supply, the administration is building on the strong bipartisan efforts that began years ago to provide a home-grown solution to the energy challenges facing our nation.
"We will be analyzing the rule in its entirety, but we are optimistic about the overall direction of support it offers renewable fuels.
"One area of continuing concern is the so-called measurement of indirect land use. Continuing to utilize indirect land use changes to calculate greenhouse gas emissions is unfair to domestic biofuels. Using it as a measurement of biofuels' carbon impact is still highly controversial and scientifically unproven. We will continue our efforts with policymakers on both sides of the aisle and in the administration to assure that biofuels live up to their enormous potential."
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The American Soybean Association (ASA) today applauds release of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Final Rule for the Renewable Fuel Standard Program (RFS2) that provides a positive outcome for biodiesel and soy biodiesel. ASA has worked hard to educate EPA and policymakers to correct flaws in the original RFS2 Proposed Rule issued in 2009. Achieving a favorable outcome was vitally important as demand for domestically produced soybean oil and the future of the biodiesel industry in the United States hinged on the outcome.
EPA's Final Rule demonstrates that soy biodiesel can achieve significant Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions relative to petroleum diesel. Even with the inclusion of questionable indirect land use variables, all soy biodiesel is deemed by EPA to exceed the 50 percent reduction threshold needed to qualify for the RFS2 biodiesel mandate.
"This favorable EPA ruling is absolutely critical to the continued success of soybeans as a homegrown renewable fuelstock," said ASA President Rob Joslin, a soybean producer from Sidney, Ohio. "ASA and the biodiesel industry were able to demonstrate that some of EPA's initial calculations regarding direct and indirect emissions were significantly flawed, and that the agency had used questionable indirect land use assumptions."
RFS2 has been a top priority for ASA. The initial rule proposed by EPA would have done unnecessary harm to the competitive position of the U.S. soy biodiesel industry. ASA generated significant grassroots support and provided extensive information during the EPA's comment period on RFS2, resulting in thousands of comments from soybean producers and industry supporters being submitted to EPA.
EPA will require the combined 2009 and 2010 volume levels to be met, which will require the utilization of 1.1 billion gallons of biodiesel by the end of 2010, significantly energizing demand for U.S. biodiesel producers.
ASA is also pleased that agricultural feedstocks produced in the U.S. will be in compliance and no additional certification will be required unless the baseline level of approved agricultural land is exceeded. EPA will require certification for foreign feedstocks.
"ASA fought against the burdensome and unnecessary requirement that renewable fuel manufactures prove that their feedstocks meet the definition of renewable biomass," Joslin said.
"Biodiesel is the cleanest burning biofuel currently used in commercial markets," Joslin said. "Biodiesel is a renewable and sustainable energy source that can play a significant role in our national efforts to increase our energy security and improve our environmental footprint. Biodiesel has also provided a significant market opportunity for U.S. soybean farmers and jobs and economic development for rural communities."
While stressing the importance of the EPA's RFS2 final rule to the biodiesel and soy industries, Joslin emphasized that biodiesel production likely won't resume until Congress extends the biodiesel tax incentive.
"The biodiesel tax incentive expired on December 31, 2009," Joslin said. "Expiration of the tax incentive has essentially caused the production and use of biodiesel in the U.S. to cease and has placed the 23,000 jobs that are currently supported by the domestic biodiesel industry in immediate jeopardy. Companies have already started laying-off employees, and this situation is certain to worsen the longer the tax incentive is allowed to lapse."
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