EPA Moves Forward on New Biofuel Regulations

In brief: New rules could provide a potential boost to the U.S. biofuels industry as the White House issues a report on fuel crops and the Environmental Protection Agency releases the Renewable Fuels Standard.

The word

The White House report was 14 pages long and called for new targets on fuel crop production and "guaranteed markets." Biofuels producers see the report as encouraging.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in the meantime, issued its Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2). This set of rules could cause some problems for the corn ethanol industry as it specifically requires corn ethanol producers to prove that corn-based ethanol produces less CO2 over its life cycle than gasoline.

The corn-ethanol industry, beleaguered by green washing accusations, opposes these rules as they require land use to included in corn ethanol's final CO2 emissions - something that would, most likely, cause corn ethanol to be shown to have a heavier carbon footprint than gasoline.

And so ...

It remains to be seen whether this will be the final nail in corn ethanol's coffin, which many see as a long time coming.

Photo credits: Diaper CC

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