Just as fossil fuel has certain standards that it must meet for quality and emissions, renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel have standards that must be met. Revised standards are due to be released this week.

Under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for implementing regulations that require a certain minimum amount of renewable fuel in all gasoline.  According to the EPA, “The Renewable Fuel Standard program will increase the volume of renewable fuel required to be blended into gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022.”

According to Reuters, the EPA will be issuing a “draft rule” this week that will measure the CO2 emissions from biofuels.  The measurements will include CO2 given off during production, as well as, CO2 from burning the fuel.  Also included will be “indirect land use change”.

“Indirect land use change” means the amount of land that that is shifted from growing food crops to growing biofuel crops.  The land shift results in farmers in other parts of the world cutting down and/or burning forests to clear more land for raising food crops. This releases large amounts of CO2 that had been stored in plants and trees.

This last bit is raising alarms with the renewable fuel industry.  The first criticism is that the science to measure “indirect land use change” isn’t “adequately developed”.  Furthermore, the Renewable Fuels Association says that if these types of measures are going to be applied to biofuels, then they ought to be applied to fossil fuels as well.  Obtaining oil from such environments like the Canadian tar sands, emits more C02 than normal oil drilling.

Once the updated standard or rule is issued, there will be a period of time within which the public can respond.  Environmentalists and scientists believe that this response period will create a dialog about the right way to measure “indirect land use change” that will be beneficial for everyone.

Ultimately, many scientists would like to see a shift from crop based biofuels to cellulosic biofuels.  Cellulosic biofuels use wood waste and field waste like leftover stalks from harvesting grain and corn for food.

Whatever the final Renewable Fuel Standard or RFS-2 turns out to be, it will be the product of much discussion and debate.

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Entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 7:39 pm under Green Technology.

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