Ethanol industry: EPA should support initial fuel standard

Ethanol industry leaders said Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency should support the principles initially underlying the renewable fuel standard.

When the EPA last year announced its intention to lower the mandated volumes of ethanol blended with gasoline for transportation fuel, it in effect put the petroleum industry in charge of renewable fuels' market share, members of the Fuel America coalition said in a telephone news conference.

Federal mandates for the use of biofuels must be based on the industry's ability to produce the fuel, not on the petroleum industry's desire to limit biofuels' market share to 10 percent - the standard blend now available at most gas station pumps, the ethanol advocates said.

The Renewable Fuel Standard requires that increasing amounts of renewable fuels that emit lower levels of greenhouse gases be mixed with gas and diesel fuels, eventually reaching 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022.

Since announcing its intention to reduce the ethanol mandate last year, the EPA has repeatedly delayed issuance of the final 2014 targets.

When that will happen is anyone's guess, said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization), which represents biotechnology companies and institutions.

In an ad campaign expected to roll out soon, Fuel America asserts that a lowering of the renewable fuel standard would undermine the Obama administration's efforts to combat climate change, promote energy independence and support the emerging cellulosic ethanol industry.

If the EPA does not uphold the renewable fuel standard, cellulosic ethanol investors will take their money overseas, said Steve Hartig, general manager for licensing for POET-DSM, which earlier this month celebrated the opening of a biorefinery in Emmetsburg that plans to make 25 million gallons of ethanol per year from cornstalks, leaves and cobs.

Jon Doggett, public policy vice president for the National Corn Growers Association, said growth in the demand for corn for ethanol has 'revitalized rural America.”

After several profitable years, he said, farmers are facing the prospect of selling a record corn crop at prices below the cost of production - a situation that would be worsened by a reduction in renewable fuel standard targets.

'A lot of uncertainty comes with a record crop. We want to make sure there is consistent demand for our product,” he said.