National Biodiesel Board blasts EPA in ILUC hearings: “Faulty data and unrealistic scenarios that punish the U.S. biodiesel industry for wholly unrelated land use decisions in South America.”

In Washington, National Biodiesel Board public affairs head Manning Feraci said that the EISA Act required the EPA to conduct a lifecycle analysis of biofuels as part of the Renewable Fuel Standard’s implementation, but said that “This does not require the EPA to rely on faulty data and unrealistic scenarios that punish the U.S. biodiesel industry for wholly unrelated land use decisions in South America.”

Faraci’s comments came as a flock of biofuels friends and foes descended on the EPA for a day of public hearings. The hearings were part of public outreach on the EPA’s proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Speakers, who were limited to five minutes of comment because of the numbers requesting a hearing, included the CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, Bon Dineen, and representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the American Petroleum Institute among other stakeholders in the RFS.

Dinneen said that “for the potential benefits of the RFS2 to be fully realized, it is imperative that the regulation is guided by sound science, transparent analysis and economic modeling that stands up to scrutiny.” The RFA said it opposed using 2005 as a baseline year for gasoline, noting the increased usage of tar sand oil since then, and raised major concerns over indirect land use change analysis (ILUC). ILUC received the majority of comments, with NRDC’s Nathaniel Greene saying that “you can’t put a value of zero on indirect emissions” just because the “cutting edge” science is immature, while the NBB, RFA and others sharply criticized the ILUC methodology and data sources.

The Illinois Corn Growers Association called the international land use effects methodology “deeply flawed”, and the attorney for ICGA, David Crow, said “the EPA’s proposal for including indirect effects rests on a “scientific black box” the contents of which have been withheld from the best available public knowledge and scrutiny”.

Nebraska Corn Board Chair Jon Holzfaster commented, “Along with the White House and EPA, Nebraska and all farmers support rulemaking that is based on sound science, while Iowa Corn Growers President Gary Edwards added that  “The Iowa Corn Growers Association shares many of the concerns about the ongoing development of new Renewable Fuel Standards raised in today’s ICGA testimony before the EPA’s hearing”.

Dr. Mark Stowers, vice president of science and technology for POET, said that the ILUC analysis was “flawed and has no basis in law or science,” adding that they failed to make proper comparison to gasoline, and said that the models underestimated corn and ethanol yields.

Brent Erickson of BIO said “The EPA’s own analysis makes clear that the infancy of the science makes the determination of international impacts highly uncertain at best. Furthermore, EPA’s proposed approach to classifying biofuels into a limited number of rigid, pre-determined categories limits the industry’s ability to innovate, since practice and process improvements are not recognized or rewarded.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Washington, Senator Charles Grassley noted that the EPA report on its indirect land use change methodology used the word “uncertain” more than 60 times.

Meanwhile, Noam Ross of GreenOrder, in an article published this week, proposed that “Congress lets the ethanol industry off the hook for its indirect upstream effects, and the industry agrees that some of its massive subsidies be diverted to programs that protect forests and give farmers options beyond burning them down.”

Coverage from six different sources – who’s was best? The Digest’s WyrdChoice™ tells all.

A wide number of sources looked at the EPA hearings this week. Biofuels Digest used its new WyrdChoice™ software (info on WyrdChoice™) to analyze who got down to the essential “news you can use” the quickest. The higher score, the better – with 100 representing a story of “average interest” to readers.

Biofuels Journal — score: 271
Domestic Fuel — score: 612
Earth Times — score: 247
AgriServices.com — score: 592
Press release from BIO — score: 1167
Wall Street Journal — score 877

Well, the numbers are in, and, amazingly, a press release from BIO was able to get down to the topics of interest to bioenergy readers with the greatest speed. A blog posting on the respected Environmental Capital page of the Wall Street Journal came in second, followed by a report in Domestic Fuel (which continues to provide outstanding reporting, as well as a good-looking site, on a wide variety of fronts).

Alas, outlets such as Biofuels Journal and Earth Times had more trouble in getting down to the essentials. The difference? The best-rated stories conveyed quickly a broader set of concerns — to biodiesel and biofuels as a whole, rather than focusing on the concerns of ethanol producers and corn growers.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

Senator Thune of South Dakota introduces bill to defang EPA on indirect land use change

In Washington, details emerged on a indirect land use bill introduced in the US Senate by John Thune of South Dakota. The proposed legislation would permit biofuel producers to ask for a waiver from E...

National Algae Association associated email says “biodiesel industry is dead”, calls for end to farmer subsidies, as algal biofuels leaders descend on Washington to seek support

In Washington, leaders of the algae biofuels industry descended on Washington yesterday for a series of meetings coordinated by BIO with congressional legislators and staff. The group aimed to inform ...

Pacific Ethanol slams “conventional wisdom” in indirect land-use change at California Low Carbon hearings

[caption id="attachment_11637" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Tom Koelher's excellent presentation at the CARB hearings is downloadable from biofuelsdigest.com"][/caption] In Californi...

South Dakota Senator John Thune blasts ILUC, proposes to ease wood waste restrictions

In Washington, Senator John Thune of South Dakota authored a strong defense of biofuels in Politico.com, writing that "the development of the biofuels industry has created jobs across the nation and g...

Growth Energy challenges indirect land use change with flurry of data, papers

In Washington, Growth Energy is distributing copies of new reports that it says challenge the "flawed, unproven and unscientific concept" of international indirect land use change.’ Growth Energy...

South Dakota hearings promote waste-to-ethanol technology, rue restructions on waste wood from public lands

In South Dakota, hearings held by Senator John Thune highlighted opportunities for wood waste-to-ethanol technology, while participants criticized a change made in the US House of Representatives to t...