http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/08/ethanol-congress-investments/7467263/
Ethanol proposal has stopped investments in advanced biofuels, industry
tells senators
Christopher Doering, cdoer...@gannett.com 3:28 p.m. CDT April 8, 2014
The Obama administration has halted investments in advanced biofuels
plants following its proposal last year to reduce how much renewable
fuels must be blended into the country's fuel supply in 2014, an
executive representing the industry told Senate lawmakers Tuesday.
"What the (Environmental Protection Agency) proposal did, first the
leaked version in October and then in November is frozen everything,"
Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Ethanol Council, told
sympathetic lawmakers on the Senate Agriculture Committee. "Every single
one of my companies. There are no exceptions."
The EPA, which oversees the country's Renewable Fuel Standard, proposed
in November cutting the fuel requirement in 2014 to 15.2 billion gallons
of ethanol and other biofuels, 3 billion gallons less than Congress
required in a 2007 law. As part of that, EPA proposed requiring 2.2
billion gallons of advanced biofuels, including agricultural waste, wood
and grass, to be used in 2014, far below the 3.75 billion outlined in
federal law.
Coleman said if the EPA raises the levels in its final 2014 rule, the
advanced biofuel industry would benefit. "If that's done we will recover
and we will recover well," he said.
The final rule is expected to be issued by the EPA in late spring or
early summer.
After years of delays and millions of dollars spent ramping up
production, three large-scale U.S. cellulosic plants will open this
year. DuPont Cellulosic Ethanol, which is building a 30 million gallon
per year cellulosic ethanol plant near Nevada, Iowa, will use corn
stover as its feedstock when it ramps up production.
Jan Koninckx, DuPont's chief on cellulosic renewable fuel, told
lawmakers the fuel will initially cost more before the price comes down.
"The product will at first . . . be more expensive than corn ethanol and
more expensive than fossil fuel but over time this will come down,"
Koninckx said. "We continue to anticipate to be competitive with oil at
about $80 per barrel."
Lawmakers outside of ethanol producing states have proposed to end or
significantly overhaul the Renewable Fuel Standard.
"I don't know what would happen if you put the Renewable Fuel Standard
to a vote today in the United States Congress," Sen. Heidi Heitkamp,
D-N.D. "We'd like to think we'd maintain it. . . but that may not be
factual."
One measure, introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Tom
Coburn, R-Okla., would greatly diminish the importance of the Renewable
Fuel Standard by removing the component that requires fuel to be made
from corn. Smaller mandates for advanced biofuels such as cellulosic
would remain in place. Others would cap how much ethanol could be
blended into gasoline at 10 percent.
Iowa, the country's largest ethanol producer, has 42 refineries capable
of producing over 3.8 billion gallons annually, with three cellulosic
ethanol facilities under construction.
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