Senate Energy Committee chair says Energy law ‘favors certain technologies and feedstock”, says definitions of biomass too narrow

In Washington, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, said that “There is some concern that the RFS as enacted risks taking the biofuels industry backward rather than pushing it ahead. First, yearly biofuel requirements could be too aggressive; second, mandates for specific technologies and feedstock could prove to be overly prescriptive; finally, the environmental restrictions could be too narrow,” he said.

Bingaman added that “the law favors certain technologies and feedstock with individual mandates, and the definition of ‘renewable biomass’ from which the required biofuel can be derived is too narrow.”

Critics of the new Energy law have said that there could be as much as 2 billion tons of wood waste in national forest lands, which were excluded from qualifying biomass by House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who cited concerns about forest protection.

Last week, Senator Bingaman initiated  hearings on the rule-making associated with implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard. The Committee will decide whether to recommend a delay in the implementation schedule of the RFS, which calls for 8.5 billion gallons of ethanol to be blended with conventional gasoline in 2008.
Charles Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, told the Committee that the Senate should have considered these issues before passing the Renewable Fuel Standard, and predicted that the cost of transporting biofuels could reach 13 to 18 cents per gallon.

The American Coalition for Ethanol’s executive vice-president, Brian Jennings, also testified before the Committee.

“Enactment of this bill may be the most profoundly important shift toward renewable fuels and away from our risky and expensive reliance on fossil fuels ever taken in the U.S.,” Jennings said. “This ambitious 36 billion gallon per year RFS will unleash the ability for corn and cellulosic ethanol to provide the nation with a stable supply of clean-burning, homegrown, renewable fuel for years to come.”

“It is unmistakable – decreasing petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions will require both grain and cellulosic biofuels. Implementation of the new RFS needs to recognize this fact,” Jennings said. “If the EPA applies arbitrary indirect land use modeling and penalizes grain-based ethanol in the RFS rulemaking, ACE will be forced to oppose the rule change and encourage Congress to help provide a common sense remedy.”

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