EPA Lowers Biofuel Standards

By Lacy Scarmana

The EPA is lowering its standards for how much renewable fuel must be added to gasoline sold in the United States. The new standards will likely affect Indiana.

The EPA is reducing the amount of biofuel required in gasoline by 1 billion gallons. That exceeds the total amount of ethanol produced in Indiana last year. Indiana Ethanol Producers Association president Steve Pittman said in a statement that it’s a big step backward for energy innovation and renewable fuels, and that the EPA is giving into the demands of big oil companies.

But Environmental Working Group research analyst Emily Cassidy said many scientists who previously thought corn ethanol was good for the environment have since published reports showing corn ethanol is actually worse for the environment than gasoline. And she points out that since the ethanol mandate began in 2005, farmers have converted millions of acres of grasslands to plant corn.

"That’s bad for the environment and for the climate because if you convert grasslands, plow it up, you emit a lot of the carbon that’s locked up in the soil and the plants into the atmosphere," Cassidy said.

She says the EPA’s new standards shows there is only so much demand for ethanol in the fuel supply. She says moving forward, there should be a focus on second-generation biofuels made from agricultural residue or waste.