Advanced BioFuels USA

by Meghan Sapp (Biofuels Digest)  In Washington, the Competitive Enterprises Institute has put forth proposals for the next session of Congress including freezing the Renewable Fuel Standard below the blend wall while setting a sunset period for 2022. The CEI says the RFS has not weaned the country off foreign oil as well as the “fracking revolution” has while increasing agricultural runoff, converting wildlife and conservation areas into energy crop production, increasing air pollution and potentially producing more GHG emissions than fossil fuels.  READ MORE and Download “Free to Prosper: A Pro-Growth Agenda for the 115th Congress” proposals

Excerpt from Competitive Enterprises Institute:  The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)—created by the 2005 Energy Policy Act and expanded by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act—requires refiners to blend increasing quantities of biofuel into the nation’s motor fuel supply over a 17-year period (2006–2022). As RFS statutory targets diverge from marketplace realities, each year’s obligations are actually set by Environmental Protection Agency officials in a setting rife with interest-group lobbying. Lawmakers should strive to restore predictability and choice to U.S. motor fuel markets.

The RFS is a textbook study in the law of unintended consequences. The program was supposed to benefit consumers. Instead, the RFS artificially bids up the price of corn, soy, and other crops, adding billions of dollars to food costs. In addition, the vast majority of biofuel is ethanol, which contains one-third less energy by volume than gasoline. Consequently, the RFS forces motorists to spend more for fuel and to fill up more frequently.

The RFS was supposed to benefit the environment. Instead, the program:

◆◆ Increases agricultural runoff, a major contributor to aquatic dead zones;
◆◆ Converts millions of acres of wildlife habitat in grasslands and wetlands into energy crop plantations;
◆◆ Increases net emissions of air pollutants, such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen oxides (NOx); and
◆◆ Produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the gasoline it replaces, according to some analyses.

Moreover, compared with the fracking revolution, the RFS has done little to reduce American dependence on foreign oil.

The RFS is incompatible with the constitutional principle of equality under law. It enriches some corn and soy farmers at the expense of poultry, hog, beef, and dairy farmers. The RFS literally compels one set of companies to purchase, process, and create a market for other companies’ products. To see the anomaly, suppose instead of enacting renewable volume obligations for refiners, Congress enacted input volume
obligations, compelling corn farmers to purchase annually increasing quantities of specific types of seeds, fertilizers, and farm machinery. The howls from RFS supporters would be loud and furious—and justifiably so.

Congress should:
◆◆ Freeze the renewable fuel standard’s blending targets below the “blend wall”—the quantity of ethanol that can be sold domestically given the incompatibility of mid- and high-ethanol blends with the vast majority of vehicles and infrastructure, and anemic consumer demand for such blends because of
their inferior fuel economy.
◆◆ Sunset the RFS after 2022 so that competition and consumer preference, not central planning and political pressure, determine which fuels succeed or fail in the U.S. marketplace.

Experts: Myron Ebell, Marlo Lewis, William Yeatman  READ MORE