Sustain RFS as Important Tool in GHG-Reduction Strategy

(Solutions from the Land) One of the three pillars of climate-smart agriculture is actions that farmers can take to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and simultaneously improve profitability. A principal means by which the agriculture sector can help governments around the world reach global emission-reduction goals is through the production and implementation of biofuel technologies that utilize farm and forestry feedstocks.

According to the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA), the transportation sector is the second-biggest source of GHGs in the world, accounting for more than one-fifth of all emissions.

The GRFA also notes the transportation's progress in reducing its emissions is among the slowest of all sectors, likely attributable in part to the failure to meet the full potential offered by biofuel technologies, including the use of ethanol, due to poor policies that either fail to offer sufficient incentives to promote their development or put up barriers that impede their implementation.

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A more recent USDA report demonstrates the value of (corn-based) ethanol in cleaning up the transportation sector, showing its GHG emissions are about 43 percent lower than gasoline when measured on an energy equivalent basis.

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Other nations are establishing emission-reduction policies based on increase ethanol use. Japan recently updated its 2010 sustainability policy, approved in 2010, to allow corn-based ethanol imports.

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A subcabinet-level gathering late last month of officials representing USDA, EPA and DOE was the latest in numerous meetings held in recent months, including several at the White House with President Trump, to remove barriers to the year round sale of E15 blend fuels and resolve a longstanding dispute over Renewable Fuel Identification numbers (RINs).

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EPA has granted more than two dozen blending waivers from RFS requirements to refiners who claim RIN prices are too steep and pose economic hardships.

Critics say the agency under Administrator Scott Pruitt is granting the waivers at a rate far greater than in previous years and to refiners that don't meet "hardship" requirement - in effect, undermining the RFS and the ethanol market.

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As for allowing sales of E15 (15-percent ethanol) during summer months in most of the country, Trump has agreed the ban should be lifted - EPA studies show the higher ethanol blend does not pose the air quality problems originally cited when the ban was imposed.

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The dispute over the RFS is also muddling the promotion of even higher ethanol blends (E20-40) in transportation fuels to provide greater efficiency and fewer emissions - an effort that takes on additional significance with a decision pending from the Trump administration on whether to formally roll back auto fuel efficiency and GHG targets in the next decade.

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Stakeholders are urged to reach out to their lawmakers .... READ MORE