The Latest on Biofuels
Today is the annual US Department of Agriculture Outlook Forum. The department announced projections for the next crop year with 94 million acres devoted to corn - up 2 million acres from 2011, 58 million acres in wheat, 75 million acres in soybeans and just 13 million acres of cotton. But how much of the extra acreage will come from plowing up conservation land that protects water, soil and wildlife while sequestering carbon?
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On Friday afternoon (Feb. 17), the Environmental Protection Agency gave its OK to increasing from 10 percent to 15 percent the amount of ethanol – most of it from corn – blended into the gasoline supply. Since older cars can’t safely use E15, that’s likely to become a nightmare for owners who fill up with the wrong fuel.
Read MoreThe Environmental Protection Agency’s decision today to pave the way for the sale of gasoline blended with up to 15 percent ethanol is likely to prove a nightmare for car owners who improperly fuel their gas tanks.
Read MoreBeware of higher ethanol gas. E-15 fuel could void warranties, damage small engines.
Read MoreDecember 31 marked the overdue demise of one of the government subsidies that has long propped up the corn ethanol industry. But if you think corn ethanol is now standing on its own in the energy marketplace, take another look. Yes, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) is gone and will no longer pay oil companies for every gallon of ethanol they mix with gasoline.
Read MoreThe National Academy of Sciences should review the health, environmental and safety effects of E15 ethanol blends before they’re allowed on the market, but limiting EPA’s authority to enforce the Clean Air Act would be a bad idea.
Read MoreFor the third consecutive year, the Environmental Protection Agency has drastically reduced cellulosic biofuel mandates, citing economic and technological hurdles. Even though industry officials consistently assure lawmakers and taxpayers that commercial production is “just around the corner,” EPA yesterday reduced the 2012 cellulosic mandate by ninety eight percent.
Read MoreAdvocates of healthy food and farm policy reform have had a lot of success in 2011.
Read MoreThe new film “Freedom” is an industry bought-and-paid-for infomercial for environmentally destructive corn ethanol, masquerading as a pseudo-documentary on the nation’s oil addiction. Josh Tickell won the Sundance audience prize award for his 2009 film “Fuel.
Read MoreA new report by the National Academy of Sciences has found that corn ethanol production increases greenhouse gas emissions and damages soil, air, water and wildlife habitat. As well it says advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol are unlikely to prove practical substitutes for either corn ethanol or fossil fuels.
Read MoreLobbyists for polluting industries and opponents of environmental regulation have been tripping over one another to come up with self-serving lists of targets for the Congressional Super Committee as it labors to find ways to reduce federal spending and trim the deficit.
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Last week, the corn lobby posted a blog that abruptly declared its independence from so-called “advanced biofuels.” This announcement made it painfully clear that corn ethanol will never gain America independence from our dangerous oil addiction and that the evolution of advanced biofuels is near non-existent.
Read MoreBy Craig Cox and Sheila Karpf The corn lobby has persistently sold misguided subsidies and mandates for corn ethanol as a bridge to the "next generation" of so-called "advanced" biofuels. The conventional wisdom was that infrastructure built to support inefficient and environmentally damaging corn ethanol would eventually benefit the nascent advanced biofuels industry.
Read MoreA new study released today by the US Geological Survey shows that efforts to reduce nitrate levels in the Mississippi River Basin are having little impact. Nitrates come mostly from the over-application of chemical fertilizers on crops in the Corn Belt, fouling streams and rivers and eventually helping to swell the annual Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone."
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A deal brokered by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), John Thune (R-S.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to end tax credits and tariffs that subsidize the U.S. ethanol industry is a step in the right direction.
Read MoreFor almost two decades, the Environmental Working Group has advocated for protecting vulnerable people from toxic contaminants, ending crop subsidies that encourage environmental harm and investing instead in conservation and sustainable development.
Read MoreFor three decades, the politically well-connected corn ethanol industry has been able to harness government support without much thought to the fuel’s harm to health, the environment and engines. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a final rule that attempts to keep consumers from using too high of an ethanol blend in their cars, trucks and small and off-road engines.
Read MoreThe Environmental Working Group knows that you care about the affordability and availability of healthy food and clean drinking water. So we wanted to make sure you know as much as you can about the massive piece of legislation that guides federal agriculture policy.
Read MoreSomething remarkable happened in Washington last week. In a historic, game-changing vote, the Senate voted to put America’s taxpayers and its soil and water ahead of special interests and the corn ethanol lobby.
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