SACRAMENTO, CALIF.—Growth Energy, the nation’s largest biofuel trade association, called on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) today to update the way the agency assesses the environmental impact of crop-based biofuels like ethanol.
“We were greatly encouraged when California finally approved E15 for use earlier this year,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “Recognizing the environmental benefits of crop-based biofuels and setting carbon reduction policy that allows ethanol to compete on a level playing field is the next critical step. American ethanol producers and their farm partners are constantly innovating to increase their efficiency and lower their carbon intensity. To maximize the benefits ethanol can deliver to California consumers, CARB must stop penalizing today’s biofuel producers based on yesterday’s data.”
In submitted comments, Growth Energy noted that CARB unfairly penalizes crop-based biofuels by relying on environmental assumptions that are almost a decade old. In particular, the way that CARB assigns an exaggerated value for land use change (LUC) to crop-based biofuels is especially damaging and undermines the ability of biofuels like ethanol to qualify and compete in the state’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS).
Read the full comments here.
