Expanding Biofuel Production and the Transition to Advanced Biofuels Lessons for Sustainability from the Upper Midwest: Summary of a Workshop (2010) / Chapter Skim
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II: Policies Driving the Expansion of Biofuel Production
II: Policies Driving the Expansion of Biofuel Production
Pages 5-10
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From page 5... ...
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 EISA's provisions have important implications for the sustainable production and use of biofuels. The act: • Requires significantly increased volumes of renewable fuel production,
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While EISA has a number of sustainability provisions, it "grandfathers" the first 15 billion gallons/year of biofuel, exempting this amount of fuel from 1 EISA defines advanced biofuels as renewable fuels, other than ethanol derived from corn starch that has lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions that achieve at least a 50 percent reduction over baseline lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. Types of advanced biofuels include: ethanol derived from cel lulose or lignin, sugar or starch (other than corn starch)
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and the U.S. Department of Energy, to report every three years on environmental impacts, including: • Environmental issues, including air quality, effects on hypoxia, pesticides, sediment, nutrient and pathogen levels in waters, acreage and function of waters, and soil environmental quality; • Resource conservation issues, such as soil conservation, water avail ability, and ecosystem health and biodiversity, including impacts on forests, grasslands, and wetlands; and • The growth and use of cultivated invasive or noxious plants and their impacts on the environment and agriculture.
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One of the Farm Bill's most important provisions is USDA's Biomass Crop Assistance Program, which provides payments to farmers for growing new feedstocks and subsidizes the costs of collection, harvest, storage, and transportation to conversion facilities.2 STATE POLICY INCENTIVES Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin have also developed a set of policy incentives to encourage development of a local biofuel industry.3 During the workshop, state representatives and researchers described current and planned state biofuel policies. Wisconsin Wisconsin uses a combination of financial and regulatory incentives to en courage industry development -- making the state a "market participant" in an industry promoted heavily through federal government regulation.
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For older plants, blenders' credits for ethanol were issued through a producer payment program for ethanol plants built before 2000 -- issuing a credit for 20 cents per gallon of ethanol produced, up to 15 million gallons of ethanol per year per plant. Newer ethanol plants are covered by JOBZ, which is a more general economic development program (i.e., not solely a biofuel industry program)
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Decisions to delay provisions allowing for the calcula tion of indirect land-use impacts under EPA's new renewable fuels standard and the potential for expanding feedstock production on environmentally sensitive lands were particularly troublesome to many participants, as were decisions to shift some responsibilities for administering EISA from EPA to USDA. State representatives at the workshop implied that they were waiting for federal leadership before proposing new energy policies and expressed frustration with the complexity and slow-moving federal policy process.
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