Cellulosic Ethanol Continues to Fail

In 2007, President Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act. The bill amended the Renewable Fuel Standard and mandated that increasing amounts of cellulosic ethanol be blended with gasoline and diesel every year, with the provision that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may reduce the mandated amounts. But year after year, the technological advances […]

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PYLE: EPA’s Biofuel Fix is Only a Band-Aid

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released today its 2014 requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The proposed rule scales back the ethanol mandate to the 2012 level of 15.2 billion gallons, down from 16.55 billion gallons in 2013. American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle released the following statement in response to the […]

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Lawsuits Challenge Unrealistic RFS Mandate

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and the American Petroleum Institute (API)  have filed lawsuits with the D.C. Circuit Court challenging EPA’s unrealistic 2013 cellulosic biofuel requirement under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)—requirements that were released nine months late. This year’s cellulosic mandate requires refiners to blend 6 million gallons into the nation’s fuel supply, […]

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Ethanol Production Down in 2013 Despite Federal Mandate

Despite federal law requiring refiners to blend increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline, domestic ethanol production has actually declined over the last year. The U.S. ethanol industry produced 6.40 billion gallons of ethanol through the first half of 2013, down from 6.89 billion gallons over the same period last year, according to the Energy Information […]

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U.S. and EU Biofuel Mandates Tighten Grip on Energy Producers

This is Part 2 of a three part series comparing biofuel mandates in the United States and European Union. Part 1, which focused on rising food prices, appeared yesterday. Part 3 will be published tomorrow. Despite what the ethanol industry would have you believe, biofuel mandates place unrealistic and ever-rising burdens on energy producers. In […]

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KiOR's Troubles Deepen

On these pages we have already described the absurdity of the EPA’s cellulosic ethanol mandate, which is literally impossible for refiners to satisfy. EPA’s 2013 mandate was based on their projections of the cellulosic ethanol output coming from two particular plants, one of them being a KiOR plant based in Columbus, Mississippi. Yet unfortunately for refiners—who […]

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Fact Check: Fuels America's RFS Ad Campaign

Fuels America trotted out a series of stale, debunked talking points in a recent advertising campaign extolling the virtues of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). This is one of the latest attempts by the ethanol lobby to conceal the truth about ethanol as Congress considers changing or repealing the federal ethanol mandate, which requires refiners […]

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