US renewable fuels policy leaders defend Renewable Fuel Standard, pursue broader alignment

In Washington DC, the heads of the National Biodiesel Board, the Algae Biomass Organization, the Advanced Biofuels Association, BIO’s industrial biotechnology section and the Advanced Ethanol Council discussed policy options for advanced fuels in a rare public meet-up. at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference (ABLC 2013).

The discussion ranged from the pursuit of unity, the threat to the Renewable Fuel Standard from a coalition of food, oil and environmental interests, and included a discussion of tax and regulatory goals.

Highlight comments:

Joe Jobe, CEO, National Biodiesel Board: “Domestic and diversified energy supply works for power, will work for fuels. We have relatively stable power supplies and prices because we have a domestic and diversified supply including coal, natural gas, solar, biomass, wind and nuclear. The problems with fuel prices stem from not having that domestic and diversified supply — biofuels are only a part of a distributed supply, but an important one.” Jobe also indicated that the biodiesel industry was on track to meet its 5 x 15 goals and had set a 10 x 22 target (10 percent of US diesel industry supply, by 2022).

Brent Erickson, executive VP, BIO: “The Renewable Fuel Standard is not broken, what you have is some refiners trying to break it, But a charge unanswered is a charge believed.”

Mary Rosenthal, executive director, Algae Biomass Organization: “Algae has moved out of the lab and into the ponds, flying planes, and fueling both ships and cars.”

Mike McAdams, president, Advanced Biofuels Association. “Let’s work together and with EPA, which has substantial, existing regulatory authority to address issues in renewable fuels and the Renewable Fuel Standard. If Congress opens RFS, there’s no controlling it.” McAdams called on industry to focus on its successes in its messaging — and to work to reassemble the coalition of, environment, agriculture, biofuels and public interest groups that originally created and protected the RFS.

Brooke Coleman, executive director, Advanced Ethanol Coalition: “Saying you can ‘tweak’ the RFS through legislation is like flicking matches into the driest forest in history. Opening up the Clean Air Act is not something that you want to do.”