We all know how our beloved government does so many "stupid" and costly "blunders", right? Well, here's another classic example. The EPA's "Ethanol Mandate" requires oil companies to blend a certain percentage of ethanol gas with ethanol made from something other than corn. The "cellulosic biofuel" mandate requirement can't be met, because THERE ARE NO PLANTS IN EXISTENCE that make cellulosic biofuel. The EPA even admits that. The very first "pilot" plant to make this biofuel (from corn stalks, cobs and shucks) is just starting construction to try to prove the technology. So what does EPA do? They fine the oil companies for not blending a fuel for which the ethanol is "non existent"! Make sense? This is far worse than "Dumb and Dumber"!
"Pete"
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1:16 PM,
July 25, 2012
Big Oil sues over cellulosic ethanol mandate
Oil companies
have never liked the federal Renewable Fuels Standard, but they have a special
ire for the requirement for the use of non-corn, cellulosic ethanol that is
virtually nonexistent.
The American
Petroleum Institute, which represents the largest oil companies, filed a
lawsuit with the D.C. Circuit Court late Tuesday challenging the Environmental
Protection Agency’s mandated use of cellulosic biofuels in the 2011 Renewable
Fuel Standard (RFS).
Cellulosic
biofuels, made from crop residue or grasses, have been slower to develop than
originally hoped and for the last two years the EPA has acknowledged that
federal targets for the non corn ethanol have not been met.
In Iowa, two
corn stover plants at Emmetsburg and Nevada are scheduled to begin construction
this year in time for the 2013 harvest. They will be the first noncorn ethanol
plants in what is the nation’s largest ethanol producing state.
“EPA’s
unattainable and absurd mandate forces refiners to pay a penalty for failing to
use biofuels that don’t even exist,” said API Director of Downstream and
Industry Operations Bob Greco. “The mandate is effectively an added tax on
gasoline manufacturers that could ultimately burden consumers.”
The Clean Air
Act requires EPA to determine the mandated volume of cellulosic biofuels each
year at “the projected volume available.” There was no commercial supply of the
fuel in 2011, according to EPA’s own records. However, EPA required
refiners and importers of gasoline and diesel to use or pay for credits to
cover 6.6 million gallons of the nonexistent biofuels.
The Renewable
Fuel Standard has become a target by livestock producers as corn prices reached
record levels this summer due to the drought, causing fears of shortages and
high food prices. A bill introduced this week in the U.S. House of
Representatives by Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) would
cut the RFS by as much as 50 percent if corn surplus stocks fall below certain
levels.
Corn surpluses
have been at 15-year lows for most of the last two years due both to export
demand and the fact that ethanol now consumes about 35 percent of the U.S. corn
crop. In Iowa, home of the nation-leading 41 ethanol plants, ethanol consumes
about 60 percent of the crop.
