Posted January 2, 2014
The Renewable Fuels Association recently released a report citing the successes of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), according to an Agri-Pulse article available here. The report is available here.
The report, “Celebrating Six Years of The Renewable Fuel Standard,” cites a 60 percent increase for jobs in the ethanol industry since 2007 and a decrease in gasoline imports and crude oil imports.
Geoff Cooper, RFA’s vice president of research and analysis, “said that increased oil and natural gas production had a significant impact in lowering foreign oil dependence, but added that a jump in production of renewable under the RFS ‘certainly played a role.’’
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed a reduction in the requirement for ethanol and biofuel production. The 2014 RFS reduces the proposed volume to 15.21 billion gallons. Public comment ends at the end of January 2014.
The report also addressed environmental issues including a shrinking of the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone or “hypoxia zone” by 26.6 percent, according to The Ethanol Producer Magazine here. Cooper said, “last year in 2012, the hypoxic zone was the smallest it had been in 12 years.”
Senators recently introduced a bill that would repeal requirements that a certain amount of corn ethanol be blended into gasoline. The text of the “Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act” is available here.
For more information on renewable energy and the RFS, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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