In Washington DC, The Hill hosted a Capitol Hill forum on the future of biofuels. Keynote speaker Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the President for energy and climate change, argued that calls to repeal the RFS are “short-sighted.” Additionally, Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss.) featured, although the Congressman neglected to specifically mention either renewables or the […]
In Washington, the US Senate voted 59-40 to confirm Gina McCarthy as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, after the Senate voted 69-31 earlier in the day to end debate on the nomination. The vote came after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatened to pass legislation aimed at limiting Senate delaying tactics after four key […]
In California, the Fifth District Court of Appeal issued its opinion in POET, LLC v. California Air Resources Board, which challenged the Low Carbon Fuel Standard adopted by the Air Resources Board. The Court ruled for POET on every one of its substantive challenges, reversed the decision of the Superior Court affirming the LCFS, and ordered […]
In Washington, Valero’s CEO told a Senate hearing that the Renewable Fuel Standard is “broken” and should be repealed and replaced with a better functioning policy. The blend wall has led to soaring RIN prices that oil refiners must pay because they say that ethanol can’t be blended any higher, so their backs are against […]
In Washington, the American Petroleum Institute has launched a new ad campaign using TV, radio and internet to try to convince Congress to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard as soon as this year. The campaign features a mechanic explaining why he thinks biofuels are bad news, including impacts on food prices and lower gas mileage. […]
In the EU, Parliament members set a 5.5% cap for fuels made from food crops, and decided to include emissions arising from indirect land use change in measurement. This cap, set by the Environment Committee, is designed to accelerate the development of second-generation biofuels. Original propositions had the cap at 5%, but was raised after […]
In Belgium, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee voted to raise the Fuel Quality Directive’s requirement for fuel producers to reduce the carbon intensity of their fuels by 9% by the end of 2025, up from 6% by 2020, the current requirement. The Committee also voted for a 5.5% ceiling on the use of food-based biofuels […]
In Washington, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Foreign Agricultural Service awarded fiscal year 2013 funding to more than 70 U.S. agricultural organizations to help expand commercial export markets for their goods. Under the Market Access Program (MAP), FAS will provide $172.7 million to 70 nonprofit organizations and cooperatives. MAP participants contribute an […]
In New Mexico, the question surrounding the state’s long-standing but never-implemented B5 blending mandate is set to be decided by a task force. The state agriculture department has sent out the first letter to the task force’s members who are set to meet for the first time on Aug. 8. The multi-stakeholder task force will […]
In Switzerland, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and the FAO have released a joint study that describes and analyses global intra-industry trade in biofuels arising from environmental legislation that has been developed separately in different markets and jurisdictions, and puts forward proposals and recommendations for addressing some of the environmental impacts resulting […]
