California decision could hinder biofuels

Farm and Ranch April 30, 2009 The state of California has adopted new regulations aimed at cutting the state's greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels by 10% by the year 2020. American Farm Bureau Energy Specialist Anne Steckel says that's an admirable goal, but the methods are seriously flawed and set a bad precedent for the rest of the nation. Steckel: "The effect will be to decimate the ethanol industry and the move to any kind of cellulosic next generation ethanol. It will be impossible if we set these sort of impossible standards." The impossible standards she is referring to is a measure of the indirect environmental impact of using ethanol and that would include; Steckel: "Tilling the land; trucking the corn to the ethanol plant; the emissions from the ethanol plant and so forth. They measured that for ethanol but they did not measure that for gasoline." Which on paper makes it look like using petroleum products is better for the environment that using biofuels, which Steckel says is not only ridiculous, but defeats the purpose of the new rules. Steckel: "Their whole intent is to get to cellulosic ethanol. So their intention is good but by using this indirect land use and unfairly penalizing biofuels we will never get to the second generation cellulosic ethanol industry. The infrastructure and the investment will not be there if the demand is not there currently." The Renewable Fuels Association expressed disappointment in California's decision but also remains confident that the state's formation of an expert work group will result in a more balanced and fair assessment of the indirect greenhouse gas effects of all fuels. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.