The president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association had a chat with the New York Times this week about the whole issue of indirect land use changes and ethanol.
Bob Dinneen is featured in a post today on the NY Times “Green Inc.” blog in a post by reporter Kate Galbraith.
Mr. Dinneen emphasized that his group was perfectly willing to factor in such indirect land-use changes. But he expressed concern that biofuels are the only industry for which this calculation is made. Petroleum, for example, does not factor in land use changes — and besides, he said, “Where’s the carbon impact associated with development in suburbia?”
“They can’t just do it to us and not to everyone else,” he argued.
Mr. Dinneen welcomed the comment period that will follow the E.P.A.’s proposals, and said that the ethanol industry believed that adjustments on the land-use front are needed.
“Right now, I think the model is too uncertain, the assumptions are out of whack and it needs to be promulgated more fairly,” he said.
Read the whole post here.