According to a new white paper, inaction by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on finalizing the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rules is increasing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) equal to 4.4 million additional cars on American roads. The paper, published by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) updated earlier estimates of GHG emissions due to the proposal to reduce biofuel use during 2014.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section, said, “During the U.N. Climate Summit this week, the Obama administration is sure to promote the regulatory actions it has taken to reduce climate change emissions from stationary sources such as power plants. But regulatory inaction on the RFS has opened the door to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.”

“Last November, EPA proposed a steep reduction in the use of biofuels in order to avoid hitting the so-called blend wall – a proposal the administration still has not finalized,” continued Erickson. “What the agency failed to consider is that demand for transportation fuel has been increasing – the United States is now using several billion gallons more gasoline and diesel than projected. The so-called blend wall is an invention of the oil industry and has simply been a red herring.”

In March 2014, Erickson and coauthors published the study, “Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Proposed Changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard Through 2022.” That study demonstrated that if EPA reduced biofuel use under the RFS, as the agency proposed in November 2013, the U.S. would experience an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and forego an achievable decrease in emissions.

In the updated white paper uses new data on transportation fuel demand for 2013 and 2014. The U.S. is now projected to use 2 billion gallons more gasoline and 0.5 billion gallons more diesel in 2014 than previously projected.

Erickson concluded, “The administration must finalize the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard using a methodology based on biofuel production and continue the program’s successful support for commercialization of advanced and cellulosic biofuels. The renewable fuel industry has already created hundreds of thousands of good jobs and boosted economic growth.”