Establish a low carbon fuel standard

Administration is in the process of drafting low-carbon standards

Updated: Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | By Catharine Richert

Renewable fuels have lots of advantages, but when they're converted to energy, they can create carbon emissions that can harm the environment. By setting a standard, the Obama administration wants to make renewable fuels such as corn ethanol better for the environment.
 
During the campaign, Barack Obama said he would require nonpetroleum fuel suppliers to reduce carbon concentration of their products by 5 percent within five years and 10 percent within 10 years. Obama said he also wants a carbon standard for biofuels — energy made from corn, soy or other crops — to make sure they don't do more harm to the environment than good.
 
Before we delve into Obama's promise, a little background.
 
Measuring the overall carbon emissions of biofuels is tricky. While corn ethanol, for example, is cleaner burning than traditional petroleum, some people argue that the energy used to grow, water, harvest and process the corn into ethanol outweighs ethanol's benefits. And there's another problem: As the demand for biofuels increases, environmentally sensitive lands such as rainforests in Indonesia are being used to grow more of the crops needed for fuel production. When forests are cut down and turned into farmland, carbon is released into the atmosphere.
 
Scientists have attempted to quantify these auxiliary emissions in recent years, but with little success. Nevertheless, some states have tried to implement their own rules. In the spring of 2009, California adopted a new regulation that required all fuel used in transportation to have a 10 percent greenhouse gas savings by 2020.
 
Taking its cues from California, the Environmental Protection Agency announced on May 26, 2009, that it was planning to increase the Renewable Fuel Standard, an existing mandate that requires gasoline to be blended with ethanol or biodiesel, from 9 billion gallons of of blended fuel to 36 billion gallons in by 2022. (With the passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, EPA is required to to make these changes.)
 
The administration also said that it would be using that standard to set greenhouse gas limits on these renewable fuels. So, for example, the regulation under discussion would require biofuels have a minimum 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Advanced and cellulosic biofuels — fuel made from left over biomass such as wood chips — would need to have a 50 or 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, respectively.
 
"For the first time in a regulatory program, lifecycle analysis of GHG emissions is being utilized to establish those fuels that qualify for the different renewable fuel standards," the announcement said. "Based on our lifecycle analysis, we believe that the expanded use of renewable fuels would provide significant reductions in GHG emissions over time, such as carbon dioxide."
 
Obama is still a long way from fulfilling his promise, however. Farming interests threw a wrench in his plan during debate this summer over a bill to limit carbon emissions. To get the industry's support, House leaders agreed to insert language into the bill that would ensure widespread scientific agreement linking biofuels to global land-use changes before the EPA could move forward with its new greenhouse gas rules. And absent from the proposed regulations is Obama's original promise that fuel producers would be required to reduce carbon 5 percent within five years and 10 percent within 10 years.
 
With the regulations a long way from being put on the books — it's a process that could take years and stacks of comments from the public — we're moving this one to In the Works.

Sources:

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Proposes New Regulations for the National Renewable Fuel Standard Program for 2010 and Beyond , accessed Aug. 19, 2009

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Lifecycle Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Renewable Fuels , accessed Aug. 19, 2009

California Environmental Protection Agency, California Adopts Low Carbon Fuel Standard , April 23, 2009

Feedstuffs, EPA's peer review of indirect land use criticized , by Jacqui Fatka, Aug. 7, 2009