New rules for biofuels; WH creates interagency working group

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The federal government is still strongly committed to the development of biofuels, perhaps now, more than ever before.  A conference call was held today between Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson in order to announce a new direction for biofuels in America.  In it, the heads of the three U.S. agencies discussed ways “to make the biofuels industry cleaner, as well as ways to encourage output of ethanol made from non-food crops.” 

The conference call was part of the creation of a new federal working group.  “The Biofuels Interagency Working Group, to be headed by the secretaries of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Agriculture  will be asked to identify policies that would make biofuels more environmentally sound and encourage production of flex-fuel cars that can run on either gasoline or fuel that is mostly ethanol,” Reuters reports.  The creation of the group was a strong signal given to industry by the Obama Administration that “biofuels done the right way can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce U.S. dependence on gasoline,” iStockAnalyst reports.

The EPA is set to release a report later today that specifies which types of biofuels actually contribute to lowering overall emissions.  The new ranking proposed by the group seeks to favor biofuels based upon their lifecycle emissions.  Conventional biofuels made from crops like corn and soy have been criticized for actually increasing overall emissions, but advancements in biotechnology may soon change those figures.  Advanced biofuels already reduce overall emissions but are not currently being produced on a commercial scale.

"This proposed rule lays out a number of pathways for biofuels to get to a lower carbon footprint,” EPA Administrator Jackson said. “Corn-based ethanol is a bridge to the next generation of biofuels, which include fuels made from waste products and cellulose,” Platts reports. 

Critics say that regulating lifecycle emissions is unfair and will place ethanol producers at a disadvantage to the fossil fuel industry whose emissions are virtually all subsidized by the federal government.  Further, critics of the new ranking claim that the rules for biofuels based upon indirect land-use changes halfway around the globe is not practical and will undoubtedly kill off select sectors in the biofuel community.

Ethanol produces say that advances in seeds and fertilizers result in more feedstock being produced on less acreage, lowering overall indirect land-use effects from domestic production of ethanol.  Many second generation biofuel feedstocks require little to no acreage, fertilizer, or water to produce. 

President Obama asked the group to “immediately begin refinancing of existing investments in renewable fuels as needed to preserve jobs in ethanol and biodiesel plants, renewable electricity generation plants, and supporting industries”.  In addition, President Obama also asked the group to “encourage production of next-generation biofuels from biomass and other non-corn feedstocks”.

Secretary Chu wasted no time acting on the President’s request; the DOE announced it will “provide $786.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to accelerate advanced biofuels research and development and to provide additional funding for commercial-scale biorefinery demonstration projects,” according to the DOE website.

The U.S. first began requiring renewable fuels when the Energy Policy Act of 2005 introduced the Renewable Fuels Standard, which sought to double the use of ethanol and biodiesel by 2012; this would increase the production of biofuel from roughly 4 billion gallons in 2006 to almost 8 billion gallons in 2012.  The Bush Administration then upped-the-ante on the RFS with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, requiring 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels per year in 2022. Currently, the U.S. produces 9 billion gallons of ethanol per year.

The renewable fuels program requires specific amounts of the different forms of biofuel including conventional biofuel, advanced biofuels, and cellulosic biofuels in order to reach the 36 billion gallon requirement.  The EPA’s rules released later today could change the established ratios.  By 2022, 15 billion gallons were to come from conventional biofuel and 21 billion from advanced biofuels (with 16 billion of those coming from cellulosic biofuel).  The new rules may raise the number of gallons from advanced biofuels while lowering the volume coming from conventional sources, but the ratios may remain in place with more funding going toward advancing biotechnology increasing the output per acreage from conventional sources.  From the Renewable Fuels Association website:

• Conventional biofuel is ethanol derived from corn starch. 
• Advanced biofuels is renewable fuel other than ethanol derived from corn starch that is derived from renewable biomass and achieves a 50% GHG emissions reduction requirement. 
• Cellulosic biofuels is renewable fuel derived from any cellulose, hemicellulose, or lignin that is derived from renewable biomass and achieves a 60% GHG emission reduction requirement.  

The updated Renewable Fuel Standards, known affectionately as RFS-2, seeks to incorporate some of the indirect land-use changes that biofuels create into the emission equation for various types of biofuels.  For example, as more and more farmers grow corn to meet conventional biofuel mandates, cropland available for growing other crops will be taken away, causing either forests to be cleared or conservation land to be taken out of retirement.  The new rule seeks to figure the carbon exchange of these indirect actions into the overall emissions.  Many in the biofuel industry have been trying to draw attention for months to the inadequacy of the science behind the study of indirect emissions, and the new rule shows the Obama Administration was listening.

The new rules and rankings will be released by the EPA later today.  “Industry groups, scientists, and environmentalists expect that the proposed RFS rule will examine whether and to what extent all biofuels cut emissions of greenhouse gases.”

“The industry was looking for a signal of support, especially after the collapse of gasoline prices and the widespread backlash against corn ethanol because of a belief that it was helping to push food prices higher,” the NYT reports; and today, it looks as though they got it.

More stories HERE.