Biofuels Support NY's Clean Energy Goals — and They Strengthen Our Farms | Opinion

by Todd Du Mond (USA TODAY Network/lohud.) • Biofuels offer a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, benefiting farmers, the environment, and local economies. • New York has implemented some biofuel initiatives, but a low-carbon fuel standard is needed to further incentivize the industry. • A low-carbon fuel standard would create a market for biofuels, encouraging in-state production and reducing reliance on out-of-state facilities. • California's successful low-carbon fuel standard serves as a model for New York to emulate.

What if there was a way for farmers to stretch crops like soybeans used for animal feed by locally converting the byproducts into cleaner-burning fuel that can power our own farm equipment?

Creating such a self-sustaining model on upstate farms isn’t an abstract thought experiment. It is the potential of biofuels: renewable heating and transportation fuels that can be made from vegetable oils, as well as animal fats and recycled restaurant grease, and that emit fewer carbon emissions than fossil fuels. Biofuels represent a win for farmers, a win for the environment and a win for local economies — if New York state can step up to provide proper support to help grow the industry.

As the second-generation owner of one of the state’s largest grain farms, sustainability is at the heart of our operations. Simply put, to sustain ourselves and the people who rely on us long term, we have to be mindful of a changing climate.

It’s why over the past 25 years we have used biofuels to varying degrees to power our farm equipment and truck fleets. While trucking fleets like ours are the perfect candidates for electrification, the infrastructure costs and limitations of electric vehicles make an overnight switch infeasible, just as trucking fleet operators and lawmakers have raised concerns about all-electric truck requirements.

Helping incentivize greater use of so-called bridge fuels could help meet this moment when there needs to be an alternative as electric technology takes more time to become more ubiquitous and, critically, more cost effective.

To be sure, New York has made some important progress. The state currently requires the use of a 5% blend of biodiesel in heating oil, which will increase to 10% this summer and 20% by the end of the decade. The state also offers tax credits for using those biofuel blends for home heating and a partial tax exemption for highway use biodiesel blends.

The next step forward would be enacting a statewide low-carbon fuel standard, which would not only create a greater market for use of biofuels in New York, but also would signal to producers that New York is an important market for opening new operations.

The bottom line is that if we can essentially grow our own fuels, our carbon footprint plummets down into the basement as our sustainability soars through the roof. READ MORE

Excerpt from City Limits: Meanwhile, officials acknowledge meeting the state’s fast-approaching climate goals—including the build-out of renewable energy projects—will inevitably come with a cost to New Yorkers.

While the balancing act between affordability and clean energy policies is delicate, the state has opportunities it must seize to make this dance less burdensome for New Yorkers.

Lawmakers can advance the state’s climate policies in a cost-effective manner by ensuring biofuels become a greater part of the state’s energy mix. Enacting policies that will further strengthen and incentivize the use of these renewable fuels will also go a long way in bolstering reliability and ensuring the state’s long-term energy security.

Unlike some clean energy technologies still being tinkered with, biofuels are available now for both building heating and transportation needs. These affordable drop-in fuels have a proven track record of reducing emissions, making them the ideal resource for this delicate time.

As multi-generation fuel companies serving wide swaths of the five boroughs, we have been at the vanguard of clean energy innovation for the past quarter century by deploying biofuels to reduce emissions in the buildings and transportation sectors.

Made from cooking grease, rendered animal fat, and soybean byproducts, biofuels’ lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be anywhere from 40 percent lower all the way up to 86 percent lower than those of petroleum diesel.

Right now, about 1.4 million homes statewide use biodiesel-blended heating fuels, which are compatible with existing oil burners, furnaces and tanks and do not require costly infrastructure upgrades, making them an immediate cost-effective option for home- and business owners who prefer the comfort and service that biofuels provide or are reluctant to switch to all-electric heating.

Quite simply, we need to use all existing tools in our toolbox for an “all-of-the-above” energy approach—a strategy endorsed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last fall at a statewide energy summit in Syracuse. To pass on the immediate carbon reduction benefits of biofuels while continuing to spin our wheels in endless debate would be a setback that will only make future efforts to reduce our carbon emissions more challenging. READ MORE