Row over US biofuel rules intensifies

An independent peer review of proposed US biofuel regulations has only served to intensify a long-running dispute between corn-ethanol producers and those demanding tougher life cycle assessments of the carbon emissions that biofuels generate.

A four-person review panel concluded that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had been fair in its estimation of the role that the domestic biofuel industry would play in increasing greenhouse gas emissions in other countries.

Following the enactment of a biofuel mandate in 2007, which requires petrol to be blended with 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, the EPA was charged with writing a rule to determine how ethanol life cycle emissions should be calculated.

But the ethanol industry was unhappy with a proposal put forward in May, which
ruled land use changes in other parts of the world that resulted from a shift by US
agri-businesses from food to ethanol fuel production should be taken into
account. It also criticised the EPA's suggestion that the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions produced by cutting down forests to free up land for agricultural use should likewise be considered as part of the carbon footprint of corn-based biofuels.

In a similar vein, the Renewable Fuels Association is now claiming that the EPA biased the outcome of the independent peer review by selecting participants with known anti-ethanol views.

It also said that the modelling techniques employed to work out indirect land use change were not reproducible elsewhere in the world – a criticism echoed by some panel members who raised questions as to whether the modelling methods used were good enough to act as a basis for regulation.

The proposed regulations are proving to be a sticking point between ethanol critics, who say it takes land away from food production, damages the environment and does not significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions, and Democratic legislators who are seeking to protect the interests of corn growers in the Mid-West.

Some Democratic members of Congress withheld support for the Waxman-Markey climate change bill until a provision was included to delay the EPA's land-use accounting method for five years. However, the EPA remains keen to implement the new biofuel regulations this year.

Meanwhile, US senators Maria Cantwell and Charles Grassley have just introduced a bill seeking to extend the current biodiesel tax incentive by five years and to change the way it is administered.

The Biodiesel Tax Incentive Reform and Extension Act aims to shift the existing excise tax credit away from activity related to blending biodiesel with petrol and towards initial crop production in an attempt to further boost the agricultural industry.