The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering equating biogenic carbon emissions with fossil fuel emissions under the Tailoring Rule, which requires the accounting and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2). Biogenic carbon emissions are those that are naturally created during the combustion and decay of woody biomass and up until now, have always been considered …
RFA: EPA Overestimates ILUC Emissions
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) has sent another letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding what they call errors in the calculations of biofuels’ carbon intensity under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2). In the August 4th letter, RFA writes, “according to [EPA’s] own analysis, EPA grossly overestimated potential emissions from land use change (LUC) attributable to the [greenhouse gas] …
Indirect Land Use Uncertainty
I conducted a number of interviews with presenters at the recent Corn Utilization and Technology Conference and many of them were about biofuels, especially ethanol. Here’s one I thought you’d be interested in. The Land Use Conundrum . . . Corn, An Advanced Biofuel? That was the title of one of the sessions that was moderated by Jamey Cline, NCGA. …
ILUC – One Consideration Too Many in Biofuel Regulation
In a recent article, “Indirect Land Use: One Consideration Too Many in Biofuel Regulation,” authors David Zilberman, a professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and assistant researcher Gal Hochman, along with Deepak Rajagopal, argue that indirect land use effects (ILUEs) should not be considered in current California and federal biofuels polices. The authors write, “…we will …
Corn Growers Want End to Indirect Land Use Change
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) believes that it’s time to throw out the whole debated theory of indirect land use change. “In 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts our corn farmers will produce more than 300 million more bushels than just three years ago, and do so on nearly 5 million fewer acres,” NCGA President Darrin Ihnen said …
Corn Conference Will Focus on Indirect Land Use
The indirect land use change (ILUC) debate will take center stage at the upcoming 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference (CUTC), scheduled for June 7-9 in Atlanta. National Corn Growers Association Director of Biofuels & Business Development Jamey Cline is chairman of the plenary session “Land Use Conundrum…Corn, an Advanced Biofuel?” which will focus on the role land use criteria …
Brazil and US Ethanol Spar Over California Standard
In a court brief filed last week, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), Brazil’s ethanol trade association, defended California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) against lawsuits filed by the petroleum, trucking and ethanol industries of the United States. “With about one in every ten U.S. cars driven in California, the largest state in the country with one of the highest …
Corn Utilization Conference to Feature Ethanol Issues
Indirect land use change and DDGs quality are just two of the ethanol-related topics that will be featured at the 2010 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference scheduled for June 7-9 in Atlanta. Geoff Cooper with the Renewable Fuels Association is chair of the “Maximizing DDG Quality” technical session. “We are coming off of a very late, wet harvest that presented …
Purdue Report Disputes Indirect Land Use Findings
A recently completed state-of-the-art analysis from Purdue University concludes that the California Air Resources Board (ARB) overestimated the indirect land use change (ILUC) impact of grain-based ethanol by a factor of two in developing its Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS) one year ago. The Renewable Fuels Association sent a letter sent this week to ARB Chair Mary Nichols pointing out …
Ethanol Report on What’s Wrong With RFS2
In this edition of “The Ethanol Report,” we hear from Geoff Cooper, Vice President of Research and Analysis for the Renewable Fuels Association, about what is right and what is wrong with the rule for the expanded Renewable Fuel Standard released early last month by the Environmental Protection Agency. The good news is that the RFS2 improves upon the rule …