RFS: It’s Not Perfect, But It’s Working

Business News/Analysis, Federal Agency, Federal Legislation, Funding/Financing/Investing, National Academy of Sciences, Opinions, Policy

October 12, 2011

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by Brent Erickson (BIO/Biofuels Digest) The Renewable Fuel Standard is the key foundation policy supporting the commercial development of advanced biofuels. It is not working as fast as some would like, but given the current economic situation it is indeed working. A handful of advanced biofuel companies have moved projects from the drawing board to demonstration scale since passage of the RFS in 2007, and a few recently have put steel in the ground for commercial-scale projects. This progress would have been significantly slower absent the RFS.

Nevertheless, there is some impatience and disappointment that cellulosic biofuel production has not grown fast enough to meet the aggressive RFS goals. A new report from the National Academies on the RFS is stoking this sentiment. The report is a nuanced examination of the current state of advanced biofuel development; unfortunately, it is marred by some significant errors of fact.

…The National Academies report takes a good hard look at the challenges facing the cellulosic biofuel industry – primarily, the growing and harvesting of sufficient biomass resources and the formation of capital to construct new biorefineries. Unfortunately, it draws the erroneous conclusion that these challenges cannot be overcome. The industry has recognized these challenges from the start. …Let’s face it, we are talking about creating an entirely new energy infrastructure from the ground up, and that is a massive and important undertaking.

…the NAS report makes a singular error in stating that the RFS expires after 2022. It doesn’t; the standard remains at the 36 billion gallon level for successive years. READ MORE and MORE (Ethanol Producer Magazine/Renewable Fuels Association)

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