If pursued wisely, biofuels – such as ethanol – have the potential to play a pivotal role in reducing global warming emissions from vehicles. But research indicates that conventional biofuels can result in substantial global warming pollution when forests and grasslands are converted to farmlands for fuel crop production.
Lobbyists for the conventional biofuels industry are mounting a vigorous campaign to push the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ignore these vital scientific findings when implementing the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The RFS will create the first national global warming pollution criteria for ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuels.
The EPA is seeking your feedback on the proposed standards – but we only have until September 25 to submit comments! Please tell Administrator Lisa Jackson that the EPA must use the best available science to ensure that biofuels truly become part of a clean transportation future.
EPA docket number Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2005-0161
Dear EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson,
In keeping with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) commitment to use the best available science when developing policy, I am writing to recommend that the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) use the latest science to calculate the lifecycle analyses of global warming-causing carbon emissions from biofuels. This would ensure that indirect land use change, resulting from converting forests and grasslands to farmland for fuel crop production, is taken into account.
[Your personal comments will be added here.]
Recent peer-reviewed research indicates that the production of conventional biofuels can directly or indirectly result in substantial global warming emissions. Previous lifecycle analyses of biofuels did not adequately account for these emissions, giving these fuels credit for greater reductions in carbon emissions than actually achieved.
Regulations should be developed based on the best available science without ignoring this major source of global warming pollution.
