Senate bid to level playing field for “advanced” biofuels
U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Tom Udall (D-NM) have introduced bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Senate that would help level the playing field for advanced biofuels like algae.
The proposal seeks to reform the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) to make it more “technology neutral”, the Senators said on Friday.
The RFS includes a traditional ethanol standard of up to 15 billion gallons by 2015, originating mostly from corn feedstock, and a separate advanced biofuels standard, known as RFS2.
Currently, the large majority of the advanced biofuel standard is limited by law to only cellulosic biofuels.
While cellulosic biofuels are an emerging technology, the current RFS2 creates an uneven playing field for other promising advanced biofuels like algae.
The Udall-Crapo bill simplifies the RFS2 by making this category “technology neutral,” opening it to all advanced biofuels, including cellulosic, algae, and other technologies, at the same 21 billion gallon standard by 2022.
Algal Biomass Organization Announces Support for Renewable Fuel Parity Act of 2011
The bill removes a significant barrier facing companies that are using algae to produce advanced biofuels such as ethanol and diesel: they do not currently receive the same treatment in the tax code as other companies producing cellulosic biofuel from feedstocks. By amending the Clean Air Act and combining the existing categories of ‘‘cellulosic biofuel’’ and ‘‘advanced biofuel’’ into a single technology-neutral category of ‘‘advanced biofuel,’’ the bill gives algae-based companies the same tax treatment other biofuel companies have received for years.
“The Algal Biomass Organization applauds Senators Udall and Crapo for understanding the potential of algae technology to create jobs and increase energy independence while recognizing that the current renewable fuels policy is an inhibitor to our industry’s growth,” said Mary Rosenthal, executive director of ABO. “With this, we support the Renewable Fuel Parity Act of 2011 as presented. We share their view that algae-based fuels should be at parity with other renewable fuels in the tax code and in fuel standards. We will continue to work with Senator Udall on his initiative, similar House-sponsored legislation, and others in Congress to accelerate the commercial development of fuels made from algae through fair and effective policies.”
Autochannel (press release)The bill removes a significant barrier facing companies that are using algae to produce advanced biofuels such as ethanol and diesel: they do not currently receive the same treatment in the tax code as other companies producing cellulosic biofuel from CORRECTING and REPLACING Algal Biomass Organization Announces Support for all 13 news articles »
