Domestic Fuel

The Environmental Protection Agency’s public hearing on the proposed rule for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) is now underway in Washington, DC.

The first testimony presented was from Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen, who expressed the ethanol industry’s major concerns about the agnecy’s attempt to measure greenhouse gas lifecycle analysis including international indirect land use changes. “There is so much uncertainty in trying to account for international impacts that it renders the regulatory process incapable of determining a specific number,” said Dinneen. “We have concerns about some assumptions EPA has made. We think they have greatly underestimated increases in yields, underestimated impact of distillers grains, underestimated or used very conservative assumptions with regard to bushels of grain per acre – all of which will have a significant impact on this analysis.”

Listen to Dinneen’s testimony here: epa-hearing-dinneen.mp3

Manning Feraci of the National Biodiesel Board presented testimony at the hearing on behalf of the biodiesel industry. “We recognize that statute requires EPA to consider significant indirect emissions when calculating a renewable fuels emission profile,” said Feraci. “This does not require the EPA to rely on faulty data and unrealistic scenarios that punish the U.S. biodiesel industry for wholly unrelated land use decisions in South America.”

Listen to Feraci’s testimony here: epa-hearing-feraci.mp3

The EPA hearing will continue all day today and then the agency will be holding a workshop on the RFS on Wednesday and Thursday.

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The ethanol industry is looking forward to a public hearing and workshops this week in Washington, DC to address the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2).

Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen will be testifying at the public hearing on Tuesday. “While we generally applaud EPA’s efforts to get the rule out, we do have some very serious concerns with the proposal, which we will be laying out tomorrow during the hearing and in the workshops,” said Dinneen during a media conference call Monday morning.

Dinneen says their most serious concerns revolve around EPA’s lifecycle greenhouse gas analysis, especially the inclusion of international indirect land use changes. “We don’t believe that the statute requires it, we don’t believe that Congress believes the analysis should include international impacts, and we certainly don’t believe that the science supports evaluating international impacts of a farmer’s decision someplace else in the world related to biofuels production.”

The EPA public hearing will be held June 9 from 10 am to 5 pm and the workshop on details of EPA’s lifecycle GHG analysis will be June 10-11, both at the Dupont Hotel in Washington, DC. More information is available here on the EPA website.

Thousands of people across the country defined “What is renewable to you?” when they selected the video, “Funky Fresh Flex Fuel” created by Chip McAfee from Arizona as the winner of the E85 Flex-Fuel Challenge. The contest was launched by the Renewable Fuels Association in early March to get a new generation of Americans, mainly college students, engaged in the promotion and support of ethanol. Promotion of the contest was done primarily through social media networks such as Facebook.

Submissions for the contest ended on April 3 and then peer voting took place between April 4-May 29, 2009. From there, a panel of judges selected the final winner, based on creativity, quality and relevance. McAfee won a Macbook Air computer for his winning entry.

A people’s choice award was also given to the entry that received the highest number of total votes through the duration of the contest. The photo submission, “University of Wisconsin-Platteville,” won this award and the photographer received a Passport hard drive.

The Fuel-Flex Challenge was sponsored by the Kansas Corn Commission, the Kentucky Corn Growers Association, the United Sorghum Checkoff Program and the Renewable Fuels Association. The fun will continue this summer with the launch of a new photo contest. Stay tuned for more details.

The Ethanol Summit 2009 is in full swing in Sao Paulo, Brazil with President Bill Clinton kicking off the festivities yesterday. His main message was that while biofuels are an important element in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, it cannot happen at the continued destruction of rainforests.

In an article published by Reuters yesterday, Clinton was quoted as saying, “What people are worried about Brazil is not (whether) you have the most efficient biofuel in the world… everybody knows that is true.”

“(But) the world would say if we let Brazil help us solve our problem at the price of more rainforest destruction, have we really gained anything? That’s what you have to answer.”

This statement was given to a group of international businessmen, the majority of which are in the biofuels industry, who may have noted a discrepancy in Clinton’s observation. According to UNICA (The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association) “…biofuels are typically not grown on rainforest land or land used to grow fuel.”

It could be argued that the bigger issue of linking rainforest destruction to biofuels production is the ongoing heated debate on indirect land use which calculates the impact of the “land” used when calculating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. I have no doubt that the issue of indirect land use change will take center state at some point during this year’s Ethanol Summit and we’ll cover that dicussion here on DomesticFuel.

Hollywood had a green makeover last week when the first all-solar community, The Gatsby Hollywood, was unveiled. This community of 34 brownstones is the largest all green, all -solar, smart home community in the country and not only features renewable energy but was built using renewable materials.

According to Dan Thompson, the CEO of MasterCraft Homes Group, who designed and built the eco-friendly community, each home will see an energy savings of 50 percent and a water savings of 60 percent.

The community was built as “adaptive use” project. This means a site is found that has abandoned buildings which are torn down and the new buildings, in this case, homes, are erected on the site. MasterCraft Homes is planning on building additional green communities in urban infill areas in LA and will never build on virgin land. This property was also unique in that it is the home of the fabled Orchard Gables Cottage which dates back to Abe Lincoln’s time. The company is working with a restoration expert to refurbish the cottage and it will be re-dedicated as a museum later this year. Thompson noted that having an urban infill area with a historic building is rare and will probably never happen again.

One of the criticisms of green building is that the average person can’t afford to purchase a green home. But in the case of a Gatsby house, this is not the case. Thompson explained that by building the entire community with solar energy and green technologies, they can keep the costs competitive. They are not charging a premium for their homes because they want their communities to be affordable. A Gatsby brownstone can be purchased starting at $750,000. This is actually less expensive then the price of a typical Hollywood bungalow. For those of us who don’t live in Cali, this price equates to about $250,000 in the Midwest.

At this time, Thompson said they don’t plan on building outside of California but with the growing need for green building expertise, he just may be expanding sooner rather than never.

The Clean Fuels Development Coalition (CFDC), the Ethanol Across America education campaign, and the Flexible Fuel Vehicle Club teamed with Veterans of Underage Military Service (VUMS) with a procession of ethanol and hybrid vehicles in the national Memorial Day parade to highlight the role of energy and national security.

Capping a weekend of national remembrance for America’s fallen soldiers, the parade through the streets of the nation’s capitol featured hundreds of veterans with a crowd of more than 250,000 in attendance. The VUMS group represents the highest degree of dedication as it is comprised of veterans who enlisted despite being underage. Marine Lt. Col. (ret) William C. Holmberg, a VUM and a nationally recognized environmentalist and proponent of renewable energy like ethanol, conceived the idea several years ago to team the VUMS with groups promoting domestic alternatives to imported petroleum.

“Our slogan is There is no National Security without Energy Security,” said Holmberg. “Groups like CFDC, Ethanol Across America, and the Flexible Fuel Vehicle Club work every day to increase that awareness. Marching together in the shadow of the Washington Monument, the Capitol, and the memorials helps people get the connection that much the unrest around the globe has links to oil,” he said.

The procession included the CFDC/Ethanol Across America FlexFuel Chevy Avalanche, the Flexible Fuel Vehicle Club’s Chrysler Van, and several hybrid vehicles.

“Under any circumstances it would be an honor for us to be part of the salute to all those who have served. Our generation sees the loss of jobs, wealth, and military cost of importing more than 60% of our oil, and we have an opportunity to do something about it,” said Durante. “If reducing our dependence on oil keeps us out of one less conflict, and keeps young Americans from having to be memorialized, then we should all be working toward that goal.”

According to Flexible Fuel Club President Burl Haigwood, the parade provided an opportunity to increase public awareness that we can do something about it, right now. “With more than 7 million flex fuel vehicles on the road today, if we ran those vehicles on clean, domestic fuels like ethanol we could reduce our reliance on unstable regimes and reduce the military costs of protecting our oil interests,” said Haigwood.

Col. Holmberg’s concluded the days events stating, “Alternative fuel, high-mileage vehicles and ethanol are our front lines in securing a more secure energy future for America, and, by the way, major artillery in our climate change battles.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has officially opened a 60-day comment period for proposed changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard. The comment period will be open until July 27.

In addition to seeking comments on the proposed rulemaking announced earlier this month, EPA is also conducting peer reviews of critical aspects of the lifecycle methodology used to determine the greenhouse gas emissions of various fuels.

EPA has also announced a public hearing to be held for the proposed rule which will be held in Washington, DC on June 9.

A bill was introduced in the Senate this week that would keep the Environmental Protection Agency from using non-scientific data when determining greenhouse gas emissions.

The bill introduced by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is a companion to legislation introduced last week by Collin Peterson (D-MN), the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Like the House bill, Grassley’s bill improves several provisions with the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard that were enacted in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA).

Grassley says the use of indirect land use changes to determine greenhouse gas emissions makes no sense. “It’s ridiculous to think that Brazilian farmers are looking to see what Iowa farmers are doing to determine how they run their own business, and quite frankly it’s plain unfair to farmers,” said Grassley.

The bill would make sure that greenhouse gas calculations are based on proven science by removing the requirement to include indirect land use changes, and exempts from the lifecycle greenhouse gas reduction requirements any biodiesel plants that were in operation or under construction prior to December 2007 when EISA was signed into law.

A new National Fuel Efficiency Policy was passed today adding to recent efforts to curb America’s dependence on foreign oil while spurring development in new clean transportation technologies that will help curb greenhouse gas emissions. This new policy, which sets the toughest fuel economy requirements in the country’s history, speeds up, by four years, the fuel economy standards that were passed in 2007 (CAFE).

This new policy will go into effect in 2012 and ramp up through 2016 and will require passenger cars and light trucks to get an overall average of 35.5 miles per gallon (it is currently 23.1 mpg) by 2016 while cars are expected to average 39 mpg (currently 27.5) and trucks will be required to get 30 mpg. 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a public statement today saying, ”Today’s announcement builds on Congress’ increase of fuel efficiency standards two years ago, speeds us toward meeting the goal of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2020, and establishes the first-ever national standard for global warming pollution from cars and trucks. These efforts will save consumers money at the pump, strengthen our national security by making America more energy independent, and cut global warming pollution that is causing a climate crisis.”

Pelosi is just one of dozens of organizations publishing statements today applauding the new policy. Bob Dinneen, President of the Renewable Fuels Association, stated, “President Obama has rightly recognized that improving vehicle fuel economy is an important tool in reducing America’s reliance on foreign oil.  Together with the increasing use of renewable  fuels like ethanol, these technologies represent the most immediate and effective solution available to help meet our energy and environmental challenges.”

Dinneen went on to state that today’s policy decision does little to effect ethanol’s role in the fuel market place and concluded with, “Raising fuel economy standards, allowing for ethanol blends in excess of 10 percent, and continuing to invest in next generation renewable fuel technologies are the kind of forward-looking policies that will begin to change America’s foreign oil habit. President Obama’s announcement today, together with his recently reaffirmed commitment to biofuels, are appropriate steps in that direction.”

Japan will begin a three year study on their allowance of 10 percent ethanol in their fuel. Currently, ths country only allows up to three percent of ethanol to help cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

Japan’s Ministry of Environment said they have given approval for two groups to study E10 issues. Osaka prefectural government will focus on ethanol made from discarded construction materials, while the Tokachi area in Hokkaido, northern Japan, will study E10 with ethanol made from farm waste.

Even if E10 were allowed, local feedstocks are at present too limited to make ethanol. Last year, Japan produced only 90 kilolitres of biomass ethanol at government-backed test plants. Also, no vehicle suitable for E10 is available in Japan although Japanese car makers sell such vehicles overseas.

ScienceDaily.com broke a story today about an article that will published in the May 22, 2009 issue of Science. The article focuses on what is more efficient – converting biomass to fuel or converting biomass to electricity? The study authors wrote in the online edition of the journal that the best bet is to convert the biomass to electricity rather than ethanol.

Credit: Photo by Stephen Ausmus, USDA/Agricultural Research Service

They calculate that, “compared to ethanol used for internal combustion engines, bioelectricity used for battery-powered vehicles would deliver an average of 80% more miles of transportation per acre of crops, while also providing double the greenhouse gas offsets to mitigate climate change.” Producing biomass for electricity would also provide another option to replace coal, highly criticized for its contribution of  greenhouse gas emissions and other climate change gases.

Chris Field, co-author of the study and director of the Department of Global Ecology at Carnegie Institution, said nobody has asked nor answered the question which is relatively obvious. “The kinds of motivations that have driven people to think about developing ethanol as a vehicle fuel have been somewhat different from those that have been motivating people to think about battery electric vehicles, but the overlap is in the area of maximizing efficiency and minimizing adverse impacts on climate.”

Here is what they did: they performed a life-cycle analysis of both bioelectricity and ethanol technologies, taking into account not only the energy produced by each technology, but also the energy consumed in producing the vehicles and fuels.

Here is what they found: Bioelectricity wins in the transportation-miles-per-acre comparison, regardless of whether the energy was produced from corn or from switchgrass.

They also discovered: Bioelectricity and ethanol differ in their potential impact on climate change. Some approaches make the problem worse, some make the problem better.

Although the researchers acknowledge that bioelectricity is the winner, they caution that the issue facing society in choosing an energy strategy are complex. Bioelectricity may win in terms of transportation and climate but could lose in other categories like water consumption, air pollution and economic costs.

The study, “Greater Transportation Energy and GHG Offsets from Bioelectricity Than Ethanol,” is available on Science’s website.

The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday announced strong opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s just released proposed rulemaking on the Renewable Fuels Standard that includes impacts from indirect land use changes.

During a hearing to review the impact of the indirect land use and renewable biomass provisions in the renewable fuel standard, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) blasted the proposal as being unfair to corn ethanol.

“You’re going to kill off the biofuels industry before it even gets started. You are in bed with the oil industry,” Peterson said. “I want this message sent back down the street. I will not support any climate change bill. I don’t trust anybody anymore.”

Margo Oge, head of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, took the heat in the witness chair before the committee, attempting to clarify and justify the measuring of international land use changes, such as forest clearing in the Amazon, in determining lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for biofuels. Oge laid the blame back in the laps of the congressmen questioning her who voted for the 2007 Energy Information and Security Act. “EISA required EPA to look broadly at lifecycle analysis and to develop a methodology that accounts for all factors that may significantly influence this assessment, including indirect land use,” Oge said. “Ignoring such a large contributor of greenhouse gas emissions would render the concept of lifecycle analysis, which was mandated by Congress, scientifically less credible.”

The White House responded to Peterson’s comments with a statement that “There should be no question — the Obama Administration is committed to renewable fuels.”

The long-awatied notice of proposed rulemaking on the Renewable Fuels Standard will be issued Tuesday morning at 10:00 Eastern time by the Obama administration.

The announcement will be made jointly in a press conference by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson who will discuss President Obama’s commitment to advance biofuels research and commercialization under the rule.

EPA is required under the 2007 Energy Bill to consider ‘significant indirect emissions’ when determining greenhouse gas emissions for fuels under the so-called RFS-2 program. The new RFS requires new corn ethanol plants and new cellulosic ethanol plants to produce a fuel that emits fewer life-cycle greenhouse gasses relative to regular gasoline and that indirect land use changes should be figured into that.

However, methods for calculating such ‘indirect land use changes’ – such as from forest or grassland to crops – are not yet adequately developed, and therefore many are arguing they should not be used in calculating the emissions. “Otherwise, we’ll exclude some good biofuels and stifle the investment that is so essential to our national renewable fuels strategy,” says Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who was one of a group of senators who asked the EPA not to propose regulations assuming that greater U.S. biofuels use would increase carbon dioxide emissions.

The Renewable Fuels Association has already scheduled a press conference for one hour after the administration’s formal announcement to comment on the proposed rulemaking.

The notice of proposed rulemaking on the Renewable Fuels Standard may be imminent.

News out of Washington last week was that the Office of Management and Budget has completed the review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule, specifically as it relates to indirect land use and greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels compared to gasoline.

Renewable Fuels Association president Bob Dinneen says they expect to see the rule from EPA proposed soon. “The agency has been working hard to get the rulemaking done and is under increasing pressure to do so,” said Dinneen. “Some believe that the ethanol industry is reluctant to see this rule hit the streets, that we don’t want to see an open and honest debate about the greenhouse gas issues that are teed up in this rulemaking. Just the opposite is true. We want this rule out there, we want to see all the numbers available for the public.”

Dinneen says they believe a complete evaluation of the science “will demonstrate that ethanol’s impact on indirect land use change is minimal and the significant direct benefits of adding ethanol to gasoline is extraordinary and is a policy that needs to be expanded.”

There are concerns that the recent decision by the California Air Resources Board regarding indirect land use impacts of ethanol will have a bearing on EPA’s rulemaking, but Dinneen believes the agency is looking at a different model for assessing greenhouse gas impacts that will be more favorable for ethanol and other biofuels.

A new campaign funded by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has created controversy in the biofuels industry. The campaign was developed, according to a blog post by Nathanael Greene, “to sharpen the distinction between biofuels done right and biofuels done wrong.” The campaign cites that ethanol plants using coal power is “wrong” as well as biofuels that “pillage” natural resources are done “wrong”. How to do them right? Use crops like switchgrass that use less water and fertilizer.

Sean O’Hanlon, the executive director of the American Biofuels Council (ABC), responded to the campaign by noting that NRDC made an error in that they just made themselves feedstock specific.

However, in an article published by OPIS, Greene clarified the intention of the campaign. “Congress and the country are working now to create a clean energy future and grow green jobs. If biofuels are going to be part of that future, we need to get them right. All biofuels — first generation, advanced, cellulosic, algae, you name it — they all need to be done right and measured against strict performance standards.”

“Today, environmental groups are the ones who are dictating what fuels, methodology and technology the biofuels industry should be developing.” said O’Hanlon. “What the biofuels industry should have been doing from day one is producing its fuel using wind, solar, hydo-electric, and geothermal power.”

O’Hanlon concluded by saying, “In order to produce biofuels sustainably, there are additional issues we are going to face including water use. The industry needs to start preparing for this now.” There are many experts who would agree that water use is going to come under fire in the next few months. Let’s hope the industry gets out ahead of the issue and doesn’t face another crisis similar to food versus fuel.