News

Mixed reaction to EPA rule on biofuels

The highly-anticipated release of the EPA’sproposed rule on advanced biofuels is drawing a mixed reaction from the ethanol and corn industries.

Jeff Broin, CEO of POET, the nation’s largest corn ethanol producer, expressed concern that the EPA’s model for indirect land use change unfairly penalizes corn ethanol.Broin says the entire concept is flawed.

The director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Monte Shaw, also criticized EPA’s methodology for calculating indirect land use change. However, Shaw is pleased that EPA is going to consider improvements to their modeling byhaving the final model peer reviewed by the scientific community.

Bob Dineen, president of the Washington D.C.-based Renewable Fuels Association, is also encouraged by that development.

“So I do think we’ll have the opportunity, as yet, to makethe case that assigning all these negative impacts to biofuels—and biofuels alone—is just not appropriate and not scientific and would set this whole program back, if allowed to be finalized,” Dineen says.

Regardless, Dineen says the proposed rule will not have muchimpact on existing ethanol plants or those currently under construction. He says those facilities are grandfathered in, meaning they will not have to achieve higher levels of emission offsets that will be required of advanced biofuels.

In a news release, the Illinois CornGrowers Association said the EPA rule “confirmed a short term commitment to corn-based ethanol but left the longer-term prospects undecided.”