Moving beyond the RFS

Douglas A. Durante (Clean Fuels Development Coalition/Governor's Biofuels Coalition) The global biofuels community is without a doubt watching the developments in the US with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and might be understandably confused. How is a program that was passed by the U.S. Congress and supported by Democrats and Republicans alike, and happily signed into law by two different Presidents, so controversial? How can this program be considered so successful that is was expanded and passed a second time, drain such resources from the biofuels industry and draw such ire and venom from the petroleum industry? I have met people from other countries who seem bewildered, asking how renewable biofuels like ethanol that only have a small portion of the massive US motor fuels market, leaving 90% to the oil companies, be such a problem.

After 35 years supporting the development of ethanol, I wish I had a good answer. The obvious one is that the petroleum industry is simply bigger, badder, and can out-yell and outspend our industry in order to keep the market they feel they are entitled to, and one built on tax incentives, government support, and millions spent lobbying to keep it that way. We are in a constant battle every year, throughout the year, on issues related to this renewable requirement. It results in dragging ethanol and biofuels through the mud and questioning the decisions and pathway we had already chosen.

Gasoline is useless unless it has a sufficient octane rating and that is where the problem lies. Refiners synthesize the most toxic, carcinogenic, and energy intensive compounds in oil to raise octane. The result is a high toxic content fuel producing microscopic particulate emissions that are being linked to everything from respiratory disease like asthma to neurological problems like autism. And of course, petroleum products are the source of carbon and greenhouse gases.

So how do we stop the endless war that is the RFS and look ahead, not backwards? The growth opportunity for ethanol, and its highest and true value is to reduce those toxic compounds and to clean up gasoline. Ethanol has the highest octane rating of any allowable fuel or additive and is a low cost, low carbon option. But that value can only be realized if we are able to increase volumes beyond the limits of the RFS, which we can’t do because we are blocked out of the US market through the negative attacks of the oil industry and the regulatory obstacles of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Our EPA recently approved the use of ethanol from 10% to 15% at the cost of millions of dollars that took 10 years. Despite the fact that blends beyond 15% provide that higher octane that can replace toxics, and higher ethanol is less polluting and more efficient, our EPA has made any blend above that illegal. Furthermore, they have effectively made it impossible to even dispense those fuels. They refuse to update lifecycle and emission models that penalize ethanol despite what we believe is overwhelming evidence that they are incorrect.

Perhaps most egregious is the fact that in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 Congress required EPA to reduce these toxic compounds in gasoline to the maximum extent and as technologies became available. Instead they have done the minimum in this regard, not the maximum, which would be to recognize higher ethanol blends are a maximum technology. READ MORE