EPA explains RFS; Feinstein and Coburn propose elimination of corn ethanol mandate
December 12, 2013 | 02:51 PM
A day after a key Environmental Protection Agency official told a Senate committee why the agency decided to lower the volumetric requirements for renewable fuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard, Sens. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and eight other senators introduced a bill to eliminate the corn ethanol mandate within the RFS.
Christopher Grundler, director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality Office of Air and Radiation at EPA, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday that EPA had lowered the volumetric requirements because declining gasoline use was making the goals of the RFS impractical.
If gasoline demand continues to decline, as is currently forecast, increasing the amount of ethanol used in the fuel pool will require greater use of higher ethanol blends such as E15 and E85, or other fuels “which don’t have such blending limitations,” Grundler said.
“At the present time, however, there are a number of factors that limit the use of these fuels, including the infrastructure available for distributing, blending, and dispensing renewable fuels, as well as appropriate vehicles in the fleet that can consume various renewable fuels, such as flex-fuel vehicles,” he said.
“As a result, using flexibilities built into the law, EPA is proposing to adjust some of the statutory 2014 volume requirements in order to align the program with these current fuel system constraints.”
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, testified that the market for higher ethanol blends is growing and that EPA’s decision could stifle investment.
Feinstein said today, however, that “a corn ethanol mandate is simply bad policy.”
“Under the corn ethanol mandate in the RFS, roughly 44 percent of U.S. corn is diverted from food to fuel, pushing up the cost of food and animal feed and damaging the environment,” Feinstein said.
“Oil companies are also unable to blend more corn ethanol into gasoline without causing problems for automobiles, boats and other vehicles. I strongly support requiring a shift to low-carbon advanced biofuel, including biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and other revolutionary fuels.”
Christopher Grundler, director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality Office of Air and Radiation at EPA, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday that EPA had lowered the volumetric requirements because declining gasoline use was making the goals of the RFS impractical.
If gasoline demand continues to decline, as is currently forecast, increasing the amount of ethanol used in the fuel pool will require greater use of higher ethanol blends such as E15 and E85, or other fuels “which don’t have such blending limitations,” Grundler said.
“At the present time, however, there are a number of factors that limit the use of these fuels, including the infrastructure available for distributing, blending, and dispensing renewable fuels, as well as appropriate vehicles in the fleet that can consume various renewable fuels, such as flex-fuel vehicles,” he said.
“As a result, using flexibilities built into the law, EPA is proposing to adjust some of the statutory 2014 volume requirements in order to align the program with these current fuel system constraints.”
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, testified that the market for higher ethanol blends is growing and that EPA’s decision could stifle investment.
Feinstein said today, however, that “a corn ethanol mandate is simply bad policy.”
“Under the corn ethanol mandate in the RFS, roughly 44 percent of U.S. corn is diverted from food to fuel, pushing up the cost of food and animal feed and damaging the environment,” Feinstein said.
“Oil companies are also unable to blend more corn ethanol into gasoline without causing problems for automobiles, boats and other vehicles. I strongly support requiring a shift to low-carbon advanced biofuel, including biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol and other revolutionary fuels.”
