Senators Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation Tuesday that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from going ahead with regulations that would limit the production and use of biofuels required by Congress’ 2007 energy bill. The EPA regulations would penalize U.S. biofuel producers for greenhouse gas emissions that the EPA claims result from changes in land use in other countries, such as the clearing of land for cropping, allegedly caused by the increased production of biofuels in the United States.

The proposed amendment to the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations bill would prohibit the EPA, for one year, from spending funds to include international indirect land use change emissions in the implementation of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

"At this time, the data and analytic methodologies for credibly calculating international indirect land use change emissions do not exist. Because of this, including these international emissions in the EPA’s rule would put an unjust burden on the biofuels industry," a statement from Harkin's office noted.

The amendment also clearly states that the EPA cannot use this amendment to stall implementation of other aspects of the RFS included in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

A letter signed by Growth Energy, the American Coalition for Ethanol, the Renewable Fuels Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Farmers Union and the National Sorghum Producers was sent to each Senator asking for them to support Harkin's amendment.

A statement from Nelson's office indicated that "recent communications from the EPA indicate that the agency has already reached the highly debatable conclusion that increasing production of biofuels in the United States has a “significant” impact on land use changes in other countries - even though the public comment period on the regulation will remain open until September 25th and thus EPA could not have fully analyzed all of the public’s analysis and comments."

The measure is similar to a proposal House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson included in the House's climate change bill which calls for further study on the impacts of indirect land use change.

Nelson also introduced an amendment to the Interior-Environment Appropriations bill that would direct the EPA to approve a waiver request to increase the allowable ethanol content of gasoline to 15% (E15).