The Renewable Fuels Association says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has misinterpreted and overreached in drafting its "Biofuels and the Environment: First Triennial Report to Congress." In comments submitted to EPA, RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen, says EPA took the 'Murphy's Law' approach to this draft report assuming that if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.
RFA believes the EPA has overstepped its authority to assess only those environmental impacts that are likely to result from the requirements of the Renewable Fuels Standard. Also, EPA neglects the requirement to assess environmental impacts of the RFS 'to date,' choosing instead to focus on highly speculative potential future impacts while making no attempt whatsoever to compare the potential environmental impacts of biofuels to the impacts of the fossil fuels that are being displaced.
Specifically, the RFA takes issue with the report's failure to assess environmental impacts of the baseline petroleum fuel, its unbalanced reliance on oft-refuted literature, its lack of acknowledgement of best practices and technology adoption in both farming and biofuel production, and the enormous amount of uncertainty surrounding its assessments. RFA believes significant revisions are needed before the report can reasonably be finalized and submitted to Congress for consideration.
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