BIOMASS HUB

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is due to finalize new standards (RFS2) that will govern the amount of renewable energy in the nation’s fuel supply.  According to a recent announcement from the EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the new rules will be announced “very soon.”

The rules are designed to implement requirements under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which mandate that biofuels be integrated into the US’ transportation fuel supply.  The dual purposes of EISA are to reduce dependence on foreign oil and encourage further biofuel innovation:

[T]he production of transportation fuels from renewable energy would help the United States meet rapidly growing domestic and global energy demands, reduce the dependence of the United States on energy imported from volatile regions of the world that are politically unstable, stabilize the cost and availability of energy, and safeguard the economy and security of the United States.

Specifically, the EPA has been looking at how to measure emissions or carbon intensity of various biofuels for the purposes of the new standard.  The possible inclusion of indirect land use change (ILUC) has the corn ethanol lobby up in arms, which recently filed suit in federal court to block California’s low carbon fuel standard.  The first draft of the standard used a stringent ILUC measure, but the second draft of the rules is expected to be much more favorable toward American ethanol and biodiesel producers.

Image: Flickr/meganpru