RFS II Regulations Stir Carbon Controversy

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The ethanol industry is telling the Obama administration to get it right on updated renewable fuels regulation the Bush administration punted to Obama. Otherwise biofuels will take a hit. Obama’s EPA must come up with a way to determine how much carbon ethanol production is putting into the air, from growing and harvesting corn to turning it into fuel. That will decide how to provide incentives to reduce emissions.

But Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen argues if EPA doesn’t do the so-called “metrics” right, it could be a disaster. “If they do not get this rule right, you are jeopardizing the continued growth and evolution of these more sustainable technologies. And more importantly, you are going to be greatly handicapping future carbon policy and impacting how carbon is reduced across the entire economy.”

Dinneen contends that done right, with the right incentives, his industry can continue to meet renewable fuels targets on the way to a mandated 36 billion gallons by 2022. Otherwise it won’t be just ethanol that suffers, but U.S. jobs and energy independence. A final rule could come by next fall.

Meantime, Dinneen dismisses critics’ claims that ethanol’s benefit falls dramatically versus gasoline, when its carbon pollution is factored in. “There is a carbon impact associated with Canadian tar sands, drilling deeper in the Gulf, going further and deeper for oil in this country.”