Further remarks on RFS 2014
BIO testified at the EPA’s public hearing for the 2014 standards for the ERF program on 5th December 2013. BIO told the agency that commercial development of advanced and cellulosic biofuels, as well as other biotechnology applications, could come to a halt if the recently released proposal becomes policy. The EPA has proposed a decrease in the level of advanced biofuels used in transportation next year, reversing the growth path intended for the RFS.
Written and oral testimony extracts
‘The RFS was designed by Congress to provide a supportive environment for private companies to develop new technologies, new production infrastructure, and new energy corp supply chains. Our companies have acted on this, investing billions of dollars in private capital in conjunction with federal and state grants to launch this new industry. This proposed rule will strand existing investments in advanced biofuels, curtail any further investment and development of future facilities, and put hundreds of thousands of existing and future jobs at risk. It will undercut the commercialisation of other biotechnology research and development, such as the burgeoning renewable chemical industry, that are following on to the growth of biorefinery platforms encouraged by the RFS.
‘This proposal will leave us increasingly dependent on oil, which increasingly comes from volatile regions of the world or is extracted in environmentally detrimental ways such as Canadian oilsands or deep water drilling. Setting the 2014 RFS obligations lower than the 2013 levels would mean that America will use 100 million additional barrels of oil next year alone. This would result in more than 30 million added tons of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere.
‘This proposed rule, if finalised and carried into the future will stymie the growth of advanced and cellulosic production, discourage additional innovation in the biotechnology industry, harm economic growth, undermine US energy security, and enable significant backsliding on the nation’s environmental goals.’
Adapted from a press release by Claira Lloyd.
Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/06122013/bio_remarks_epa_rfs891/
You might also like
Five key takeaways from the AFPM Annual Meeting
Following the recent AFPM Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas, US, the AFPM has released a snapshot of some of the key themes discussed throughout the conference.
