EPA’s vehicle emissions standards overlook benefits of ethanol
Summary
“While we certainly share the Biden administration’s goals of increasing vehicle efficiency and reducing carbon emissions from transportation, we strongly disagree with policy approaches that arbitrarily pick technology winners and losers with no clear scientific basis,” said Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the RFA. But today’s EPA proposal disregards the upstream carbon impacts of fuel production—including electricity made from coal or natural gas—and provides no incentive or encouragement for automakers to continue manufacturing FFVs or other liquid-fueled vehicles that can benefit from high-octane, low-carbon ethanol blends. “If given the same opportunity and an equitable regulatory framework, we are confident that higher ethanol blends—and the vehicles designed to use them—can play an instrumental role in affordable decarbonization of the nation’s light-duty auto fleet.” Growth Energy said the EPA’s proposal would leave carbon reductions on the table. “Based on early reporting, EPA’s proposed standards show a lack of imagination and ignore the reality that even by the most aggressive estimates, internal combustion engines will still occupy more than half of the light-duty vehicle marketplace by 2040,” said Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy. “In President Biden’s own words, ‘you simply can’t get to net-zero by 2050 without biofuels.’ By disregarding the contributions of low-carbon biofuels, the proposal puts a thumb on the scale for one technology at the expense of others, rather than giving automakers the flexibility to pursue innovative strategies for decarbonizing light-duty vehicles.