25x’25 Expresses Disappointment with RFS Blending Proposals; Calls on the President to Ensure Standard Maintained to ‘Letter of the Law’

Business News/Analysis, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Agency/Executive Branch, Federal Regulation, Opinions, Policy

May 29, 2015

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(25 x ’25) EPA’s proposed biofuel blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016, which were issued today, are, for the most, part a major disappointment and could, if not revised, make the attainment of the President’s energy efficiency and climate goals much more difficult – if not impossible – to achieve.

According to EPA, the transportation sector is responsible for 27 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. One would expect therefore that the agency would take any and all actions that encourage the development and use of lower carbon alternative fuels like ethanol, biodiesel and other advanced biofuels called for in the RFS. Unfortunately they are not.

The latest government analyses estimate that corn ethanol life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions are lower by 19-48 percent (the mean is 34 percent) when compared to conventional gasoline. And cellulosic ethanol is forecast in recent studies to achieve at least a 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, as compared to average U.S. petroleum, by the year 2022. Thanks to advances in technology, biofuels have significantly reduced the carbon intensity of liquid transportation fuels – a fact that is often overlooked in the ongoing debate over the makeup of our nation’s transportation fuel future.

Reducing the congressionally established biofuel blending requirements, as called for in the proposals released today, would reverse course on the path the Obama administration has long taken in its promotion of cleaner forms of energy and its efforts to curb global climate change. The President can help cement his energy and climate legacy by ensuring that the RFS – as adopted by a wide, broadly bipartisan Congress in 2007 – is maintained and followed to the letter of the law. READ MORE

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