A Misguided Plan to Replace the Biofuel Mandate
Today members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee considered a misguided plan to replace the existing biofuel mandate with a new octane standard for gasoline and changes to ensure that ethanol can make up an even larger share of our fuel. Just for good measure, the bill’s authors have air-dropped in an unrelated attempt […]
The White House’s Illegal Ethanol Boost Would Hurt People and Wildlife
Yesterday, President Trump traveled to Iowa to announce that he is instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen restrictions on selling higher blends of ethanol in gasoline. He, of course, got loud cheers from his audience of corn farmers, and he was effusive in telling the crowd the great thing he is doing to help […]
Fighting a Global Tide of Ethanol: From Canada to Mexico and Beyond
In this interconnected world, the United States is certainly not alone in its use of ethanol and other biofuels blended into gasoline. In fact, other nations are increasingly looking to our federal ethanol mandate as a model on which to base their own policies. The United States historically has been a world leader on conservation […]
Report: U.S. Biofuel Mandate Driving International Deforestation
A new investigative report, “Burned: Deception, Deforestation, and America’s Biodiesel Policy,” by Mighty Earth and ActionAid USA look at the U.S. biofuel mandate’s role in driving massive international deforestation. The report finds that the U.S. biofuel mandate, or Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)– which requires increasing biofuel consumption through 2022– has driven Argentina to increase soy-based […]
10 Years Later, Renewable Fuel Standard Fails to Live up to Environmental Promises
This is a story of unintended consequences. Ten years ago President George W. Bush signed into law the Renewable Fuel Standard, a federal program created to advance a number of national priorities: reducing energy dependence on foreign countries, raising farm incomes, and curbing levels of climate pollution emitted by fossil fuels. Indeed, the Energy Independence […]
Top 10 Reasons I’m Not Celebrating 10 Years of the Ethanol Mandate
Ten years ago today, President George W. Bush signed into law the ethanol mandate called the Renewable Fuel Standard. Intended to reduce reliance on foreign oil and the emission of climate pollution while spurring production of new types of home-grown fuel, the policy has left a decade’s worth of failure and unintended destruction in its […]
Rethinking the Ethanol Mandate: Here’s Why
Click the infographic to learn more about how the ethanol mandate is fueling destruction. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt recently suggested an increase in the production level of ethanol made from corn — up from the current limit of 15 billion gallons a year. The 2018 standard will be determined in November under […]
Backfiring Biofuels: Are They Really Renewable?
August 10th is International Biodiesel Day—a day originally created to celebrate adoption of non-traditional fuels. But, some of these biofuels have been proven to be more damaging to the environment than initially imagined. Despite this data, a problematic push for “green” biofuel continues globally. While the original intent to use biofuels was to reduce emissions, […]