Chair of Senate Energy committee says ILUC must go from Renewable Fuel Standard; RFS needs feedstock, tech neutralization, forest biomass rethink

In New Mexico, Senator Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, authored an article in politico that mirrored an article penned earlier this week by Senator John Thune of South Dakota. Bingaman wrote that “Scientists, the environmental community and some cutting-edge entrepreneurs were confident that biofuels could come from a wide array of feedstocks and use an almost unlimited number of pathways to make gasoline, diesel and even jet fuel that could help turn our goal of energy independence into reality.”

Senator Bingaman praised the EPA for its work in interpreting the Renewable Fuel Standard, but said that the legislation had to be modified in three ways. First, the definition of renewable biomass had to be modified to clarify the status of forest biomass. Bingaman supported the US House approach to delaying introduction of indirect land use change until more robust data was available. Bingaman also wrote that he believed that the RFS should be more feedstock and technology neutral.

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