EPA Boosts 2012 Renewable Fuel Goal By 9%

EPA Boosts 2012 Renewable Fuel Goal By 9%

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing that fuel producers boost 2012 renewable-fuels production by about 9 percent from 2011, as U.S. regulators look to take steps toward a goal of almost tripling annual renewable-fuel production by 2022 while reducing the amount made from the dominant feedstock - corn.  The agency wants renewable fuels producers to make 15.2 billion gallons next year, or 9.2 percent of all fuel produced, up from 13.95 billion gallons in 2011. About 13 percent of the 2012 total would come from  “advanced biofuels,” which include cellulosic ethanol, biomass-based diesel and fuel made with algae as its feedstock. The rest is so-called conventional biofuel made from a starch such as corn.  The EPA's goal is for about 55 percent of renewable fuel to be from conventional feedstock by 2022,  down from more than 90 percent last year.

Annual increases in the EPA's renewable-fuel production guidelines are in response to the Renewable Fuel Standard 2 and 2007's Energy Independence and Security Act, which in part set a U.S. production goal of 36 billion annual gallons of renewable fuel by 2022. What the new goals mean for the environment is debatable, given the issues surrounding the production of biofuels such as corn ethanol. Supporters say more ethanol production lessens domestic dependency on foreign oil and creates more farming jobs.

But many environmentalists, academic researchers, economists and other skeptics have questioned using corn as a fuel feedstock, citing a mid-decade spike in corn prices that exacerbated worldwide shortages of many grain-based foods. The price of corn - the major ethanol feedstock in the U.S. - quadrupled between mid-2005 and mid-2008.
Additionally, from an environmental viewpoint, a jump in corn production requires more water and electricity and waterway-contaminating fertilizer, while the conversion of CO2-absorbing natural forests into cropland may also cause problems. Some of these issues may be mitigated, however, if the industry starts making second-generation ethanol from waste material, algae and other feedstocks instead of corn.

The 2012 renewables proposal comes as the House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a measure –already approved by the Senate – to kill a controversial $6-billion-a-year ethanol subsidy. The so-called blenders tax credit provides a 45-cents-a-gallon payment to companies that mix ethanol into gasoline as the alcohol-based biofuel makes it way from farm to fuel tank.  To help increase use of ethanol – which replaces gasoline but costs consumers more because it is less energy-intensive and delivers fewer miles per gallon, federal regulators earlier this year approved the use of E15 fuel – a mix of 85 percent gasoline and 15 percent ethanol – in passenger vehicles built since the 2001 model year.  The ethanol lobby is hoping to persuade the EPA to approve use of E15 in all automobile engines. Presently, mixes of up to 10 percent ethanol are permitted and almost all gasoline sold in the U.S. contains some ethanol – which is used as an oxygenating agent to help improve combustion.

Danny King:  is a frequent contributor to AutoObserver.com.