Tag Archives: green
EPA Slashes Cellulosic Biofuels Mandate
August 7, 2013 The EPA has slashed the amount of cellulosic biofuels that refiners must blend into their gasoline and diesel, from its initial proposal for 14 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel to 6 million gallons in the final 2013 requirement. The rule, issued yesterday, sets percentage standards for four fuel categories that are part of the Renewable Fuel Standard program. The final 2013 overall volumes and standards require 16.55 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended into the US fuel supply— a 9.74 percent blend. This standard specifically requires: Biomass-based diesel (1.28 billion gallons; 1.13 percent) Advanced biofuels (2.75 billion gallons; 1.62 percent) Cellulosic biofuels (6 million gallons; 0.004 percent) The biomass -based diesel and advanced biofuels requirements are the same as originally proposed by the agency in February. In all, the 2013 quotas represent an almost 9 percent increase over the 2012 mandated renewable fuel volume of 15.2 billion gallons. The EPA is also giving refiners more time to comply with the 2013 volume requirements by expending the deadline by four months, to June 30, 2014. During this rulemaking, the agency says it received comments from a number of stakeholders concerning the “E10 blend wall.” Projected to occur in 2014, the E10 blend wall refers to the difficulty in incorporating ethanol into the fuel supply at volumes exceeding those achieved by the sale of nearly all gasoline as E10. Most gasoline sold in the US today is E10. In the final rule issued yesterday, the EPA said it will propose to use flexibilities in the Renewable Fuel Standard statute to reduce both the advanced biofuel and total renewable volumes in the forthcoming 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard volume requirement proposal. In January, a US federal court struck down the 2012 Renewable Fuel Standard target for refiner use of cellulosic biofuels, which stood at 8.65 million gallons, but upheld the government’s goal for use of other advanced fuels. The EPA says the final 2013 standard for cellulosic biofuel announced today was developed in a manner consistent with the approach outlined in that ruling. The American Petroleum Institute (API) had filed a lawsuit against the EPA over the cellulosic biofuel target. There was no commercial production of the fuel last year, BusinessWeek notes. Despite the lower cellulosic biofuel requirement and extended deadline, some oil industry groups aren’t happy with the EPA’s final ruling. API president and CEO Jack Gerard called the 2013 biofuel mandates a “missed opportunity to fix the problem” and called on Congress to “immediately repeal the broken mandate,” echoing earlier calls by API and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers for a complete repeal of the Renewable Fuel Standard . The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), on the other hand, applauded the ruling and said it provides advanced biofuel developers and investors with confidence that if they can produce advanced and cellulosic biofuels, they will have market access. Efforts to repeal the program are “motivated solely by the oil refining industry’s desire to block competition and consumer choice at the pump,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section. The Energy Independence and Security Act established the Renewable Fuel Standard program and the annual renewable fuel volume targets, which steadily increase to an overall level of 36 billion gallons in 2022. To achieve these volumes, the EPA calculates a percentage-based standard for the following year. Based on the standard, each refiner and importer determines the minimum volume of renewable fuel that it must ensure is used in its transportation fuel. Continue reading
Risks to Global Food Supply and Impacts to Investors – Steve Yuzpe
By Sprott Group August 06 2013 “Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.” Henry Kissinger Steve Yuzpe is the Chief Financial Officer for Sprott Resource Corp ., a publicly traded company that invests in the private equity side of the natural resource sector. Steve spoke about investing in agriculture at the Agora Symposium in Vancouver. He believes the world will one day be faced with localized food shortages and globally rising food prices that could create, in the worst-case scenario, civic upheaval in the most affected areas. According to Steve, there are several factors threatening the global supply of food. Climate change, he says, causes weather conditions to become more volatile, potentially having an enormous impact on our food supply and the productivity of existing farmland. Steve also believes that water issues are probably the least discussed factor when people talk about food scarcity. Agriculture and other uses are depleting non-refreshing, ancient fossil aquifers all over the world. When they run out, they are finished. The most intensely used ‘fossil water reserves’ will eventually disappear. In particular, the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies about 30 percent of all groundwater used for irrigation in the U.S. is running out, he says. Lake Mead and the Colorado River are also examples of areas under water stress in the U.S. “Food insecurity and food inflation are a permanent part of our world going forward,” Steve told the crowd. “Ultimately, I believe that wars will be fought and governments toppled over the need for food and water.” “The term ‘peak water’ will become more commonly used over the coming years. By some estimates, at least 56% of the world population lives in ‘water vulnerable’ areas.” I followed up with Steve after the speech: What investment ideas in agriculture could pan out? “The areas where there may be opportunities in agriculture over the next five years include taking advantage of the growing consumer demand for healthy foods, and greater attention being paid to nutrition. Companies that provide food traceability and safety services, like the tags on the ears of animals being raised for meat production, are likely to benefit. As we tragically saw during the mad cow disease outbreak that culminated in a European ban on British beef in 1996, the ability to trace the source of food is essential to assuring a safe food supply.” Do soil degradation and erosion spell a definite decline in food production? Is this an inevitable side-effect of agriculture? Unsustainable agricultural practices are the single greatest contributor to the global increase in soil erosion rates. “Soil erosion is potentially a huge problem in the future and yet, it does not need to be problem.” Modern no-till techniques have evolved, in which an air drill sends the grains and fertilizers into the ground without disrupting the topsoil, Steve explains. “But this has only been applied to 10% of agricultural production so far — a shame for the farmland we continue to lose every year. Once the organic matter and moisture have left the soil, it takes a lot of time to build back up.” Could water rights be a good way to play the need for greater food production, and a possible shortage of water? “Investing in water is also interesting but, of course, water is a basic necessity for survival, which means that governments are unlikely to allow prices to rise too much. Right now, water is almost free, so it’s mispriced. If you want to invest in water rights, the best places to invest are in geographic areas where the local constituency can afford to pay market rates and there is rule of law. Otherwise, your investment is likely subject to a lot of political risk, as government control of prices and confiscation become more than just possibilities.” Steve Yuzpe has 15 years of experience with financial administration management in public and private corporations. Sprott Resource Corp .is a Canadian-based company, the primary purpose of which is to invest and operate natural resource projects. Through acquisitions, joint ventures and other investments, Sprott Resource Corp . seeks to provide its shareholders with exposure to the natural resource sector for the purposes of capital appreciation and real wealth preservation. Continue reading
EPA Should Do More to Reduce Competition Between Food and Fuel Crops
WASHINGTON (August 6, 2013)—The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement today that it would allow food-based biofuels to make up the shortfall in cellulosic ethanol production this year was a missed opportunity to reduce pressure on food supplies and curb the clearing of forests for farmland, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) said today. However, UCS experts are encouraged by EPA’s statement that it plans to reduce food based biofuel volumes in 2014 and urges the agency to act on this commitment as quickly as possible. The science advocacy group submitted comments to EPA earlier this year urging the agency to exercise the flexibility provided by Congress in implementing the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to reduce competition between food and fuel while continuing to encourage the commercialization of the non-food cellulosic biofuel industry. The RFS was designed to promote renewable fuels that do not compete with food supplies. Unfortunately, EPA’s decision calls for so-called “advanced” food-based biofuels such as biodiesel and sugarcane ethanol to make up for a production shortfall in cleaner cellulosic biofuels this year. But UCS is optimistic the agency will correct the problem for 2014. In the announcement today, EPA stated its plans to reduce the advanced biofuel and total renewable fuel mandates in 2014 to reflect the slower-than-expected pace of cellulosic biofuel commercialization. “We have a responsibility to ensure we move towards cleaner fuels that won’t strain food supplies, accelerate agricultural expansion and drive deforestation,” said Jeremy Martin, a senior scientist with UCS’s Clean Vehicles Program. “The agency should revisit the overall mandate structure and set reasonable targets for the duration of the program — not just one year’s worth — to ensure we are meeting that responsibility.” Markets for corn, sugar and vegetable oil are tight and thus any expansion of mandates for food-based biofuels will put pressure on food prices, forcing the expansion of agricultural land into forested areas. “EPA has the authority to do what is right and prevent accelerating the expansion of food based biofuels such as sugarcane ethanol and biodiesel,” Martin said. “Cellulosic fuels still offer the best bet for replacing large amounts of oil without disrupting our food supplies.” Today EPA also extended the deadline to comply with the 2013 standards by four months, to June 30, 2014. When created in 2007, the RFS contained a 2013 goal of 1 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol. While the EPA’s decision to reduce the mandate reflects the state of current production capacity, the industry is scaling up rapidly and will continue to grow in the years to come. Ineos, for example, recently began commercial-scale production at a refinery that is turning yard and vegetative waste into fuel. Along with vehicle efficiency and other technologies, cellulosic fuels can help the country cut its projected oil use in half over the next 20 years. UCS research suggests there is enough non-food material in the United States, including wastes and fast-growing grasses, to meet the total 36 billion gallon biofuel target under the RFS. While progress has been slower than originally hoped in 2007, UCS believes the RFS is still moving production in the right direction. But to make the RFS work, EPA needs to update their analysis and targets. Martin has written about the critical decisions facing EPA over the future of biofuels on UCS’s blog, the Equation. He has also testified on biofuels policy at two recent congressional hearings. Continue reading
