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EPA gains vast powers in Energy Act: can alter timetable, waive targets, determine emission models

March 3, 2008

In Washington, the Environmental Protection Agency will have vastly expanded powers to determine crop policy and the rate of biofuels expansion, under the Energy Independence and Security Act signed into law last month. The EPA may waive or reduce annual targets prescribed under the Act, and determine which fuels qualify as “advanced biofuels” that count towards the overall goal of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel blended with gasoline annually.

Under the Act, the EPA, states, or refiners can petition the EPA to waive ethanol blending requirement, or the EPA may alter the timetable itself. EPA officials have commenced design of their analytic framework, and at the heart of their work is a determination of land-use models to use in mapping the impact of ethanol production on greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA also will have final say in allowing higher blends of ethanol such as as E20 and E30 to be adopted as state minimums.

The New York Times ran an editorial reviewing the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act in light of recent articles in Science magazine regarding greenhouse gas emissions and biofuels.

The Times said “The final bill correctly included environmental safeguards. The most important is a requirement that ethanol, regardless of its source, achieve at least a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gases compared with conventional gasoline….The calculations would have to account for both direct emissions — those associated with growing, harvesting and refining corn or other feedstocks — and indirect emissions, including those caused by changes in land use as acres devoted to producing food were converted to producing fuel. These safeguards now look very smart.”

The complete supporting online material from the Searchinger study, including well-to-wheel emission tables can be downloaded (free) here.

Reaction from world press is linked below, most of it strong reading, usually condemning biofuels:

The Register
San Francisco Chronicle
World Changing
Wall Street Journal
Science
The Morning Call
TIME
National Post (Canada)
CTV
The Car Connection
The Nature Conservancy
New York Times
Los Angeles Times
Washington Post
25×25 response

More on the Science magazine controversy from Biofuels Digest:

UK government has ordered a revised analysis review on biofuels.

Greenpeace called on the government to suspend biofuels targets.
Argonne National Lab says Science article authors’ models did not factor in changing crop yields

Bad, bad biofuels”, more Science magazine reaction, and downloads to complete underlying data

A group of scientists write to US President George Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging them to revise US biofuels policies

Biofuels emissions authors say biofuels OK if made from waste, perennials, or abandoned land

93 percent increase in greenhouse gases? Renewable Fuel Association says fossil fuels created the “carbon debt we can never repay”

Nature Conservancy study says converting land for biofuels increases net carbon usage

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    Written by Jim Lane · Filed Under Policy 

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