A new analysis done by Advanced Biofuels USA finds that the Open Fuel Standard (OFS) is “bad for advanced biofuels and will add to environmental damage if passed and implemented.”
The Open Fuel Standard Act was introduced recently in the House and a similar bill in the Senate. The bills mandate that specific percentages of vehicles be built to operate on alternative fuels. However, Robert Kozak with Advanced Biofuels USA says while on the surface that may seem to benefit the biofuel industry, “there is a very significant part of the “alternative fuels” definition that should give all biofuel, and especially advanced biofuel producers pause.”
Of main concern to Kozak is the inclusion of “methanol produced from non-renewable natural gas … on equal grounds with renewable biofuels.”
“For the biofuels market, implementation of the OFS would immediately mean that gasoline blenders could use a 10% natural gas (NG) methanol to meet EPA oxygenate requirements. Depending on the price charged by a large methanol producer such as Methanex for the initial sale of NG-methanol, existing ethanol sales could plummet,” according to Kozak.