Governors to Trump: Increase biofuels

Source: By Iowa Farmer Today • Posted: Monday, March 20, 2017

Our states are the home to over 200 biorefineries that are producing tens of thousands of jobs, sequestering tons of carbon, saving millions of barrels of foreign oil, and making enormous financial contributions to our states’ and the nation’s economies. As governors, we agree that one of the best ways to meet the nation’s energy needs is to expand biofuels production.

We look forward to working with your administration to maximize these benefits through the following initiatives, which can be addressed with regulatory modifications and better alignment to current law:

  • The EPA should provide parity for E10 and higher ethanol blends. EPA’s erroneous legal analysis that E15 — although it is an even cleaner fuel than E10 — does not qualify for the decades-old partial exemption of E10 from the Clean Air Act’s fuel volatility limitations discriminates against higher blends of ethanol and demonstrates unnecessary red tape from Washington, DC.
  • The EPA’s lifecycle carbon findings should be updated. The EPA has failed to update lifecycle carbon findings for a decade, thereby sanctioning the use of obsolete data. This distorts the public’s perception of biofuels’ environmental benefits. Recent studies show that an effective way to reduce the carbon in gasoline is the widespread use of high-octane, lower carbon gasoline blends.
  • The EPA should enforce the Renewable Fuel Standard as approved by Congress.
  • The EPA should update the 2014 Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) model to prohibit spurious comparisons of high- and low-ethanol emissions factors. The MOVES model — which EPA requires the states to use in developing their state implementation plans — negatively impacts those who live in the nation’s largest cities or near congested roadways.

We believe these steps will further advance the development of the nation’s renewable energy resources by removing bureaucratic administrative barriers. We look forward to working with you, your administration and Congress to further our states’ and the nation’s biofuel energy development.

These comments are from a letter the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition sent to President Donald Trump, signed by Govs. Pete Ricketts, Nebraska; Terry Branstad, Iowa; and Dennis Daugaard, South Dakota. Full text of the letter is at http://bit.ly/2mSqhDq.

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