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House Ag Committee hears arguments against indirect land use

The House Agriculture Committee held a hearing Thursday to review carbon fuel-standard proposals being implemented by the EPA and the California Air Resources Board.

According to a DTN report on the hearing, most of the discussion centered around theemission challenges that indirect land use rules place on domestic biofuels such as ethanol and soy biodiesel. House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson and ranking member Frank Lucas have co-sponsored a bill that would strip indirect land use provisions from the Renewable Fuels Standard. TheHouse Ag Committee, however, cannot mark up the legislation because it was referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. That committee defeated a similar amendment on Wednesday as lawmakers continued debating the climate change bill.

Among those testifying beforethe Ag Committee was Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, a renewable energy lobby group. Buis cautioned that, even though the EPA has set up a peer-review process on their indirect land use calculations, agriculture and ethanol can not count on a favorable decision. He urged the lawmakers to removethe indirect land use language from the RFS.