Ethanol proponents criticize EPA over indirect land-use issue

Some ag-state lawmakers and pro-ethanol forces are decrying the use of foreign factors to determine the environmental impact of U.S. biofuels.

Their comments came Wednesday as the EPA released its rules for the implementation of the Renewable Fuels Standard adopted by Congress in 2007. The standard requires that 36 billion gallons of the nation’s fuel come from renewable sources by 2022.

To qualify as a renewable fuel, biofuels such as ethanol must meet environmental standards. Included in the environmental-friendliness formula is a factor called “international, indirect land-use changes.” Such land-use changes could arise if, for example, so much formerly exported U.S. corn is made into ethanol that foreign countries have to compensate by converting forests to cropland.

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., called the indirect land-use factor “troubling” because it allows decisions made in foreign countries to diminish the perceived environmental friendliness of U.S. ethanol.

“It has the potential to have a very, very harmful impact on domestically produced biofuels,” Thune said during his Wednesday morning conference call with reporters. Later Wednesday, he joined Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., in the issuance of a joint news release condemning the indirect land-use factor.

Ethanol production and consumption must emit 20 percent fewer greenhouse gases than gasoline to be included in the Renewable Fuels Standard. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said on a Wednesday afternoon conference call with reporters that corn-ethanol production does indeed meet the 20 percent rule, even with the inclusion of international, indirect land-use changes in the calculations.

That announcement came as a relief to ethanol producers who had feared otherwise, but they remain concerned about the existence of the indirect land-use factor and say it could eventually harm their industry.

The South Dakota Corn Growers Association issued a news release Wednesday attacking the scientific basis for the indirect land-use factor.

“In the case of international, indirect land-use changes, President Obama and EPA got it wrong today,” said Gary Duffy, vice president of the association. “The administration needs to make certain we have scientific evidence to support using indirect land-use changes in calculating the (the Renewable Fuels Standard), and the scientific community has not come to a scientific consensus on this issue.”

Chris Thorne, spokesman for the national pro-ethanol coalition Growth Energy, criticized the logic of the indirect land-use factor. He said penalizing U.S. ethanol producers for environmental practices in foreign countries is like ticketing a legally parked car because its presence might cause some other driver to park illegally.

Allowing such faulty logic to be part of future U.S. renewable-fuels policy is foolish, Thorne said.

“It has the potential to be harmful, because it sets a precedent. We know in Washington that it’s much harder to get something out of a law than it is to get something written into a law.”

Thorne said congressional action is needed to remove the indirect land-use factor from environmental-impact calculations. Thune pledged to work toward that goal, and so did U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D.

“This proposal for calculating indirect emissions in foreign countries threatens the progress our nation has made over many years in advancing biofuels,” Herseth Sandlin said in a written statement.

South Dakota’s other representative in Congress, Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, issued a statement praising the EPA’s implementation of the Renewable Fuels Standard and predicting positive effects for South Dakota’s ethanol industry. He said nothing about the international, indirect land-use issue.

EPA Administrator Jackson downplayed the impact of the indirect land-use calculations and said positive results will flow from the EPA’s announcement that corn ethanol meets emission standards.

“EPA has found that it is indeed 20 percent less gas-emitting than gasoline, and therefore the amount of growth in the ethanol market, the corn-based ethanol market, will be dependent on market investment,” Jackson said. “The only caveat there, I’ll say, is that to get to that kind of level compared to gasoline, you have to be smart. You have to be energy efficient in how you produce the corn-based ethanol.”

Some of the critics of the indirect land-use factor echoed Jackson’s praise for the EPA’s broader implementation of the Renewable Fuels Standard.

Sen. Grassley, for example, in his joint statement with Sen. Thune and Sen. Johanns, said the EPA’s action will “provide much needed certainty for today’s ethanol and biodiesel producers, as well as for those developing next-generation and advanced biofuels,” even as he added that “it’s irresponsible for the EPA to ignore the intent of Congress concerning the inclusion of international land-use changes in calculating the indirect greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels.”

Tags: daily updates, mitchell sd, south dakota, ethanol, farm