Midwest low carbon fuel standard unnecessary, says biofuels lobby

June 24, 2010

The biofuels coalition wants to see a target for half of all fuel outlets in the Midwest to include flexible fuel pumps by 2022
A coalition of farming and biofuels industry groups has said the Midwest does not need a regional low carbon fuels standard in order to achieve a 10% greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

Groups including the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association said full implementation of the existing national Renewable Fuels Standard would be enough to achieve the aspiration being discussed by Midwestern Governors.

The industry groups have commissioned research from Michigan consultants Air Improvement Resource, Inc. (AIR), which suggests that the second phase of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2), which begins this July, would achieve a 7.7% emissions cut in the Midwest.

The study suggests that with certain regional “enhancements”, the RSF2 program could “readily” achieve a 10% reduction in climate change-causing agents by 2022.

As the US Department of Agriculture pushes a new regional approach to boosting biofuels infrastructure in the US (see this BrighterEnergy.org story), the Midwestern Governors Association is talking about the possibility of a new Low Carbon Fuels Standard for the region.

The biofuels coalition, which also includes ethanol industry lobby group Growth Energy, the Monsanto Company and state corn grower organizations from around the Midwest, is looking into possible alternatives to a new regional fuels standard.

“Tremendous opportunities”

“The new study shows that the 10% regional GHG reduction originally being sought by the MGA through possible enactment of a Midwest LCFS could be more readily achieved through effective implementation of the Federal RFS2,” the coalition said in a statement.

The coalition went on to say that the existing RFS2 offers “tremendous opportunities” for diversifying the Midwest liquid fuels supply, fostering regional economic development and reducing GHG emissions from the transportation sector.

“It is our belief that we should strive to maximize the benefits of the Federal RFS2 in the Midwest region before embarking on a path to enact an entirely new and unproven LCFS program to regulate GHGs from transportation,” it added.

Infrastructure

As well as analyzing the potential emissions reduction success from the RFS2, the AIR study also highlights the vehicle and refueling infrastructure improvements that will be needed to increase biofuel volumes under the program.

We should strive to maximize the benefits of the Federal RFS2 in the Midwest region” - coalition of biofuels and farming groups

The report says that for all scenarios, there is a need for a “greatly increased” availability of Flex Fuel Vehicles – cars and trucks that can run on any combination of gasoline and ethanol, up to 85% ethanol (known as E85).

It adds that there is also a need for many more blender pumps, which can dispense a range of different fuel blends, but can cost double the amount of new conventional fuel pumps.

Informed by the AIR study, the coalition is calling for new state incentive programs to help fuel retailers to install more blender pumps, along with targets for half of all gasoline outlets to include blender pumps by 2022.

The coalition also wants to see more incentives for next-generation biorefineries to cut the carbon intensity of producing biofuels, and it is calling for a speedy approval of higher-blend ethanol fuels for ordinary cars, such as 15% ethanol (E15).

“Clearly, more FFVs are needed in the Midwest to consume RFS2-required volumes of biofuels,” the coalition said. “The data and analysis released today make a compelling case for an FFV mandate and an exponential increase in blender pumps.”

Apologies from BrighterEnergy.org:

Owing to technical difficulties with our web host service, the original text of this story was lost on June 24, along with our original output from June 18-24, 2010. We have attempted to restore a recovered version, which may be different from the earlier version.