Once the faint glow of the laptop battery died and the coffee grew cold, a recent winter power outage forced a certain busy agricultural journalist to pause and ponder our precarious dependence on energy. In the absence of a generator, we are just one blast of winter weather away from the lifestyles of our forefathers, without their fortitude. When the lights go out, we are a soft society in a hard winter world.

With no power and blizzard conditions, travel is arduous and dangerous, we spend the evening hours toiling by candlelight and our days readying ourselves for the cold dark that lay ahead. The e-mails, voice mails and deadlines may just have to wait when there is no power.

Even more unsettling, is that much of the energy we depend so heavily upon as a nation is derived from unfriendly foreign sources. People who do not like us control the fuel powering the thin layer separating modern society and the life of the frontiersman. I find this to be a concern most of the time, though it is really a concern when a power outage creates a little more time to think.

Fortunately in early February, the Federal Government took some important steps to address this concern. Most notably, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule implementing the long-term renewable fuels mandate of 36 billion gallons by 2022 established by Congress.

This Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) requires biofuel production to grow from last year’s 11.1 billion gallons to 36 billion gallons in 2022, with 21 billion gallons to come from advanced biofuels. Increasing renewable fuels will reduce dependence on oil by more than 328 million barrels a year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than 138 million metric tons a year when fully phased in by 2022. For the first time, some renewable fuels must achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions — compared to the gasoline and diesel fuels they displace — in order to be counted towards compliance with volume standards.

“EPA was right to recognize that ethanol from all sources provides significant carbon benefits compared to gasoline,” said Bob Dinneen, Renewable Fuels Association president. “As structured, the RFS is a workable program that will achieve the stated policy goals of reduced oil dependence, economic opportunity, and environmental stewardship.

“The RFS is the public policy building block upon which America’s renewable fuels industry will be built. Today’s industry and tomorrow’s ethanol producers require stable federal policy that provides them the market assurances they need to commercialize new technologies. To that end, EPA has achieved that goal.”

According to EPA’s modeling, corn-based ethanol achieves a 21 percent greenhouse gas reduction compared to gasoline, even when scientifically shaky ideas of international indirect land use change (ILUC) are included. Without ILUC, corn-based ethanol achieves a 52 percent GHG reduction. Cellulosic ethanol achieves GHG reduction of 72 percent to 130 percent depending upon feedstock and conversion process. All GHG reductions for ethanol exceed those mandated by the RFS2.

“The EPA is using the worst science out there but still coming to good conclusions about traditional ethanol. We continue to be disappointed that EPA chooses to use the flawed theory of international indirect land use change in their calculations,” said Dwayne Siekman Ohio Corn Growers Association executive director. “The theory assumes that growing more corn means planting corn on a proportionately greater amount of acreage and will impact other crops or natural resources on a global basis. Today’s yield trends and factual land use data show this to be false.”

EPA’s Final Rule also demonstrates that soy biodiesel can achieve significant GHG emissions relative to petroleum diesel. Even with the ILUC, all soy biodiesel is deemed by EPA to exceed the 50% reduction threshold needed to qualify for the RFS2 biodiesel mandate.

In addition to RFS2, the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed a rule on the Biomass Crop Assistance Program that would provide financing to increase the conversion of biomass to bioenergy. Also, President Barak Obama’s Biofuels Interagency Working Group released its first report — “Growing America’s Fuel” – that lays out a strategy to advance the development of a sustainable biofuels industry. In addition, Obama announced a Presidential Memorandum creating an Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage to speed the development and deployment of clean coal technologies. 

I was pondering all of this while contemplating building a fire in the living room fireplace to warm up some coffee, akin to “Little House on the Prairie.” Just then, the power came back. My laptop and cell phone charged, my furnace kicked on and (sweet merciful heavens) the little red light on the coffee pot shown like a beacon of hope for an energy independent future, at least until the next power outage.

 

Matt Reese writes for Ohio’s Country Journal and lives in Baltimore, Ohio. For questions or comments, please contact him at mkcreese@yahoo.com.