Ethanol, Texas, and a Waiver Request
In an NPR News interview on July 24th, Margaret Kriz, National Journal energy and environment correspondent, discussed ethanol, Texas, the EPA and the ensuing debate regarding Ethanol regulations. Texas has reportedly applied for a waiver of the current ethanol standards. The Energy Policy Act provides an option for a waiver only if the environment or economy would be severely harmed because of the Renewable Fuel Standards.
Texas governor, Rick Perry, has applied for the waiver citing severe stress on prices, livestock and agriculture industry in the state. This has opened discussion and debate regarding the use of ethanol in our fuel. The livestock industry, food industry, and Grocery Manufacturers Association are opposed to the mandated increase in the use of ethanol. Dallas Morning News reports that Governor Perry has gained support from some environmental groups as well.
The Environmental Protection Agency will ultimately decide if Texas will be granted the requested waiver. It is expected that their decision will be made in early August. The spirited debates that have begun as a result of Governor Perry’s request will surely cause our political leaders to revisit the regulations currently in place.
What are we learning from this? Fuel and food are closely related. We need fuel to operate the machines that harvest, process, package and distribute our food. When increasing our use of corn derived fuel such as ethanol we must also take all these other areas into consideration. In addition to the fact that corn is a vegetable we eat, it is also a primary livestock feed source.
Once again, there is a need for a balanced approach in the pursuit of energy alternatives in America. The debate surrounding the use of ethanol is far reaching and diverse, from cleaner burning fuel to world hunger. Ethanol production and consumption are hot topics not soon to be extinguished.
Related Posts:
- Biofuels Part 1: Corn Ethanol Isn’t the Solution
- Study: Your Car Can Run on 20% Ethanol
- Obama and Ethanol: Is It Just About Winning Votes?
- Would You Like to Read about Meeting Ethanol Mandates in California?
Photo Credit: Fields and Corn Danielle Leininger via Flickr Creative Commons Liscence; Texas Longhorn Steer Charles & Clint’s Photostream via Flickr Creative Commons Liscence
The ethanol battle is shaping up to be one of epic proportions, because there is a lot of passion and money at stake on both sides. It has the potential for producing some really strange alliances like the one that you mentioned between meat and poultry producers and environmentalists with perhaps some anti-poverty campaigners in the mix.
On the pro-ethanol side, you have a group called Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy that includes agribusiness companies like ADM, Monsanto, and Deer (tractors). Their natural friends would be grain farmers, railroads (both corn and ethanol are generally shipped by rail, not pipelines) and auto manufacturers who are getting credits for flexible fuel vehicles.
Biofuels Digest had an interesting post on this topic.
Fun to watch, but the sad part is that all of this battling and political positioning is not really going to solve much of our energy challenge since ethanol is just a marginal source of energy in the first place. (Oops - did I let my bias show?)
The politicians and media are both in a position to benefit - the ad revenues will fly as will the campaign contributions and lobbying efforts.
It is good that the biofuel issue is receiving increasing critical evaluation, but I think that an important aspect of the situation is lost in the debates: the environmental impact of growing biofuels. It’s always food vs fuel, but the biggest problem with many biofuel production schemes is not that they push out food production; rather, they deplete topsoils, overuse fertilizers and pesticides, and generally tax the environment due to high yield agricultural practices (See The Great Biofuel Hoax of 2008).