Earlier this year Big Oil sued the EPA over the biodiesel requirement in the RFS2. Today, the Clean Air Task Force, on behalf of environmental groups including Friends of the Earth, filed suit against the EPA claiming that RFS2 encourages the world to use more oil, which will cause more pollution, because America would be reducing its dependence through the use of ethanol and other biofuels.
I don’t know about you but I’m a bit confused about this logic as are others including the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA).
“To blame American biofuels for increasing global oil use defies simple common sense,” said RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen. “By this tortured logic, any effort that environmental activists support to reduce America’s reliance on oil would be responsible for lowering U.S. oil demand, reducing global oil prices, and inciting increased consumption somewhere else in the world. Increasing mileage standards, deploying electric vehicles, and any other measure designed to reduce U.S. oil demand would be penalized with carbon emissions from increased global oil consumption under this rubric. It simply doesn’t pass the sniff test.”
The suit is based on the theory “Global Rebound Effect” which is explained above. Many also consider this theory, when relating to biofuels, to be as ridiculous as penalizing American farmers for environmental decisions made in other parts of the world, also known as “Indirect Land Use.” In this instance, environmentalists are laying blame on biofuels for the worldwide increase in oil use at the same time they are acknowledging the energy security benefits biofuels offer as America curbs it’s petroleum use. We should consider naming this the “Less for us, more for you” theory.
Dinneen supports America’s decision to move towards energy independence and said, “As the leading energy consumer in the world, America was right to take proactive steps to reduce our reliance on petroleum and set an example for the world. These environmental groups are implicitly 
making the case for keeping U.S. oil demand and prices high, rather than displacing imported oil with biofuels. Blocking the use of biofuels will not reduce global oil consumption, but rather increase it as America must look for more sources of oil, which too often comes from environmentally questionable practices like deep water drilling and tar sand conversation.”Read More
Increasing the value of the ethanol by-product distillers dried grains (DDGs) was a topic at last week’s 
One week after approving the event and less than 24 hours after allowing promotional banners to be hung on its property, Capitol Petroleum Group canceled plans by the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) to offer Washington-area residents a discount of 54 cents per gallon on gasoline purchased at two Exxon stations on Capitol Hill. A company representative, citing unspecified “political” reasons, abruptly ended UNICA’s plans to help DC drivers keep a little extra money in their pockets for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.
Iowa corn growers have teamed up with two Chevy dealerships to promote ethanol and the vehicles that it fuels.
“One out of every 10 vehicles in Iowa are Flex-fuel vehicles and can use E85,” said Shannon Textor, Iowa Corn Director of Market Development. “Our goal is to get more FFVs on the road and to sell more ethanol blended fuel.”