In Washington, Reuters reports the Environmental Protection Agency is running up against push back from an unusual mix of allies including several state corn growers associations, ethanol producers, a Valero Energy subsidiary and even the American Fuel And Petrochemical Manufacturers who believe the agency’s revised emissions rules promote electrical vehicles and push out internal combustion […]
In New Zealand, Newsroom reports that the debate about indirect land use change and the use of food crops as biofuels feedstocks have reared their ugly heads ahead of the country’s plan to implement biofuel blending from April 1, 2023. Spooked by pushback received by the European Commission regarding their handling of feedstock sustainability, New […]
In Washington, D.C., a new study by the International Council for Clean Transportation notes that as proposed revisions to the European Union’s the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and new proposals that incentivize the use of renewable fuels in the aviation and marine sectors are likely to stimulate even more demand for UCO imports and […]
In France, global methane emissions from the energy sector are about 70% greater than the amount national governments have officially reported, according to new IEA analysis released Wednesday, underlining the urgent need for enhanced monitoring efforts and stronger policy action to drive down emissions of the potent greenhouse gas. Methane is responsible for around 30% […]
In Washington, following settlement discussions with Growth Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will file a notice in the Federal Register Thursday seeking comment on a proposed judicial consent decree that would require EPA to finalize the 2021 and 2022 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs), which are the subject of a pending rulemaking, by no […]
In Louisiana, Reuters reports a senior Environmental Protection Agency official told the National Ethanol Conference in New Orleans that the EPA is focused on transparency in its rulemaking of the Renewable Fuels Standard to ensure it gets “back on track” and that biofuels are included in the toolbox for transport decarbonization. The agency is reviewing […]
In Belgium, Euractiv reports the European Commission is considering taxation of fossil fuels and crop-based biofuels at the same rate as part of the revision of the 2003 Energy Taxation Directive in an effort to transition the biofuel supply more quickly away from agricultural feedstocks. With patchwork fixes of the taxation policy since its implementation, […]
In South Dakota, the American Coalition of Ethanol said a report released recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences by Tyler Lark and others brought to life several misrepresentations of the environmental outcomes of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and refutes three key misrepresentations from the report. American Coalition for Ethanol […]
In Washington, on Wednesday’s Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing, Sen. Joni Ernst began her portion by asking the witnesses about the high cost of fuel and whether the RFS is the cause, to which one witness, Emily Skor of Growth Energy, clarified that it is not the cause. Ernst agreed the RFS […]
In Wisconsin, research led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and funded by the National Wildlife Federation assessed the environmental impacts of corn ethanol and the policy that governs it, using a combination of econometric analyses, land use data and biophysical modeling. In keeping with their previous “research” on biofuels and the RFS, the RFA says […]
