Corn ethanol seems to have made out better than expected in the proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) announced this week by the Obama administration, mainly because it allows the industry to provide more input regarding indirect land use impacts.
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is pleased with President Obama’s commitment to the biofuels industry by the creation of the Biofuels Interagency Working Group and they hope that will help to inject more reason into the indirect land use debate.
“In our conversations with the Environmental Protection Agency, we understand that there is a great deal of work that needs to be done on modeling and a great effort that needs to be put into using current and correct data regarding indirect land use,” said NCGA President Bob Dickey. “NCGA will be working closely with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and EPA to ensure scientific data is used.”
Making the announcement about the RFS Tuesday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson indicated that corn ethanol will continue to play a role in the development of renewable fuels for the nation. “EISA calls for investments in corn based ethanol, much of it grown in rural America and the Midwest, as well as a swift transition to advanced cellulosic ethanol,” said Jackson. “Working together we can have true energy independence, put billions of dollars back into our communities and create green jobs for rural communities across the nation.”
When pressed by reporters for details about how corn ethanol fits into the RFS, Jackson noted that 15 billion gallons of ethanol production are “grandfathered in” under EISA, most of which is corn ethanol. “Corn based ethanol is a bridge, it’s an extraordinarily important bridge, but it is a bridge to the next generation of biofuels,” said Jackson. In answer to another question, Jackson said, “This proposal lays out a number of pathways for us to include corn based ethanol” and she noted that EPA’s lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions calculations indicate that ethanol is “16 percent better than gasoline.”
Regarding indirect land use analysis, Jackson said they are specifically seeking scientific peer review on a number of factors, including “the satellite data used to project future land use changes, the land conversion greenhouse gas emissions factors, the estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from foreign crops, the methods to account for variable timing of greenhouse gas emissions, and the issue of how our models are used together to provide overall lifecycle greenhouse gas estimates.”
The ethanol industry is pleased and encouraged with the announcement made by the Obama administration regarding the future development of biofuels under the Renewable Fuels Standard and the creation of a Biofuels Interagency Working Group made up of USDA, EPA and DOE. 
Back in November, 2007, I told you about a truck that was running from London, England to Timbuktu in Africa on chocolate-based biodiesel (see 
Citing its central location… in relation to the United States and the country’s wind power industry… officials at Siemens say they will build a wind turbine equipment factory in Hutchison, Kansas.
While the new Environmental Protection Agency rules regarding the Renewable Fuels Standard have been welcomed by some renewable fuel advocates (see 
“We really applaud Enterprise for their commitment to E85 and their commitment to flex fuel vehicles,” said Rob Elam, president of Propel Fuels. “We think that – especially in states like California – that kind of leadership from business is very much appreciated by both the public as well as policy decision makers at the state level.” 
During a press conference immediately following the announcement, 
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The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy, together with the Environmental Protection Agency will make up the the new Biofuels Interagency Working Group. “The president has directed us to create a comprehensive biofuel marketing development program to focus on the infrastructure that will be necessary for this industry to be a permanent part of the American economy and to do it in a sustainable way,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a conference call this morning with EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Secretary Chu noted that agriculture is one of the nation’s greatest resources for energy. “We have incredible capacity not only to grow the food we need and to have dynamic exports, we can also grow a considerable amount of energy,” said Chu. He announced that $786 million will be invested through the recovery act for the development of advanced biofuels and the expansion of commercial biorefineries. Chu also said they will be creating an Algae Biofuels Consortium for the development of algae biofuels.
The White House will form a working group to be chaired by the heads of three government agencies to speed the sustainable development of biofuels.
Biodiesel makers have been extending their feedstocks into the various types of oils, including waste greases and even animal fats. But the problem is converting the free fatty acids in the feedstocks into biodiesel, sometimes a long and costly process. Well, it looks like researchers at Wake Forest University have found a way to do it quicker and cheaper.