New Tailpipe Emmissions Standards Leave Out Ethanol

Yesterday, I brought you a story from the Renewable Fuels Association regarding sustainable aviation fuel. Today I bring you a story from RFA on tailpipe emissions, which has been a pressing issue as sustainable goals tried to be met by the Biden administration, the RFA’s Troy Bredenkamp on the goal for reduction of tailpipe emissions, which is quickly followed by the hard reality with challenges in actually meeting those goals.

“What the Biden administration's done though, is that they're in a full-court press on turning everything from liquid fuel or fossil fuel into battery, electric vehicle technology, and they're doing that through regulation. So when you put a regulation out there that requires tailpipe emissions to be reduced by such a severe amount by 2032. So this rule that was finalized for heavy duty is 27 to 32. The one the week before was light and medium duty vehicles from 27 to 32. So by 2032, both light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty, this includes tractors, it has to have about a 60 to 70% carbon or greenhouse gas emissions reduction coming out of the smokestack or the tailpipe practical,”

Challenges arise in his strategy due to inadequate infrastructure and materials for battery production for electric vehicles. Therefore, including ethanol in the greenhouse gas reduction strategy only makes sense.