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Ganesan, Arvin[Ganesan.Arvin@epa.gov]
POLITICO Pro Whiteboard
Tue 6/3/2014 4:55:49 PM
Agriculture and environment groups use EPA power plant rule to press on RFS

6/3/14 12:55 PM EDT

Agriculture and environmental groups are pointing to the pending 2014 Renewable Fuel
Standard ethanol mandate as a way the Obama administration can take immediate action on
greenhouse gases in advance of the implementation of EPA' s just announced power plant
emissions rnle set to take effect in 2030. However, the groups can't agree on whether increasing
or reducing the ethanol mandate would help more.
In a
today, Mike Lavender, a policy analyst with the Environmental Working Group,
argues that "If the administration wants to cut emissions right now, the Environmental Protection
Agency should move ahead with its plan to reduce the amount of com ethanol blended into
gasoline."
Reducing the ethanol mandate, as was detailed in the November 2013 proposed RFS, would
encourage farmers to remove land from production due to a likely decline in com prices. The
additional conservation lands that would result could "reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the
equivalent of 3 million tons of carbon dioxide,'' Lavender argues.
However, the National Farmers Union is taking the opposite view, supporting ethanol as a
renewable fuel that can be used to reduce emissions when used instead of conventional
petroleum. "The Renewable Fuel Standard is currently the most important policy we have to
issued yesterday. "I
address climate change,'' NFU President Roger Johnson says in a
hope EPA reinforces today's announcement by withdrawing its misguided proposal to
undermine the RFS, returning the 2014 biofuels target to its statutory levels.
- Jenny Hopkinson

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CREW FOIA 2014-006851-0000692