The U.S. EPA finalized amendments to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program that include new renewable fuel production pathways for renewable diesel, renewable naphtha, and renewable electricity (used in electric vehicles) from landfill biogas. According to the EPA, “Adding these new pathways will enhance the ability of the biofuels industry to supply advanced biofuels, including cellulosic biofuels, which greatly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) compared to the petroleum-based fuels they replace.” However, these changes don’t address some of the fundamental problems associated with the RFS, according to critics.
For example, NACS, the international trade association that serves the convenience and fuel retailing industry, claims the RFS is outdated due to its reliance on incorrect assumptions about market demand and infrastructure costs. NACS recently offered the following three policy recommendations to reinvigorate the RFS:
- The statutory increases in renewable fuel volumes sold each year must be revised to reflect the declining size of the overall gasoline market.
- Policymakers must take steps to make higher ethanol blends legal and attractive to sell.
- A significant education campaign is needed to build consumer demand.
Charles Drevna, president of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, argues against the RFS altogether: “Congress had laudable intentions when it passed the RFS, but the past six years have underscored the costly economic and environmental impacts of this policy. It is time to restore competition and consumer choice to the fuel markets, and for Congress to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard.”
Others, however, believe the RFS is working, and helping to develop a new and cleaner fuel industry.
Is the Renewable Fuel Standard working? What changes, if any, should be made to the RFS?
While I think the federal initiatives in this context are important, state efforts to effectuate energy and climate policies through RFSs are also extremely important. Unfortunately, these initiatives are threatened… Read more »
The RFS idea was great at creating the production capacity for renewable fuels. However it failed to achieve its other (albeit implicit) objective which is to create a ceiling to… Read more »
I would like to point out that nothing has changed in the last six years since I presented my OECD paper: http://gaia.pge.utexas.edu/papers/OECDSept102007TWPatzek.pdf to the EU ministers of transportation and environment. … Read more »
Here, as in many other areas of policy (e.g. jobs versus debt), our tendency towards manic-depressive partisanship paralyzes us, and makes it hard to march forward to solutions which would… Read more »
I’d like to note an important update to this discussion. Today, Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) introduced “The Renewable Fuel Standard Repeal Act” (S.… Read more »
Yes, the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) is working. By the end of 2013 or early next year we will have approximately 100 million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol production… Read more »
[…] Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which was recently amended to address numerous criticisms, is again under fire, this time for its potential effect on food […]