US President Barack Obama has re-confirmed the Bush administration’s targets to boost the take up of
biofuels in the country’s transport sector, but has added caps on the use of grain-based ethanol with impacts on greenhouse emissions, food prices and land clearing in mind.
George W. Bush’s 2007 Renewable Fuels Standard demands the blending of 36 billion gallons (136 billion litres) per year of biofuels in gasoline by 2022. Under new draft rules released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a maximum of 15 billion gallons a year of ethanol to come from corn and other grains by 2015.
There is also to be a minimum of 16 billion gallons of second generation biofuels in the US gasoline mix by 2022. Obama’s EPA chief Lisa Jackson said the policy was to ensure corn-based ethanol provides only a bridge to the next generation of biofuels which have a lower carbon footprint over their life-cycle.
Corn prices fell marginally for two days following the announcement.
The draft rule changes come as part of a wider $790 million stimulus plan to help corn producers through the credit crisis and develop new cellulosic biofuels from biomass. It proposes to set a requirement for reducing greenhouse emissions from biofuel use, taking into account land-use changes in the US and abroad where other crops might be displaced and more forests cleared to meet combined food and green fuel demand.
Public comments will be taken on the draft rule before finalising the greenhouse limits.
Reuters 5/5/09, New York Times 6/5/09
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