EPA allows dirtier ethanol production by relaxing environmental rules
This Chicago Tribune article almost slipped through the cracks, but thankfully Plenty Magazine caught it for the rest of the green blogosphere. The article reports that the Environmental Protection Agency will be relaxing pollution rules for new ethanol production plants by changing the way those plants are permitted to operate under the Clean Air Act.
Under existing rules, ethanol plants are considered major sources of air pollution if they emit more than 100 tons of toxic chemicals per year. It this is the case, they are subject to an intensive permit process as well as being forced to install pollution equipment that would eliminate up to 95 percent of their emissions. After the proposed changes take effect, new ethanol plants will not be subject to the stringent federal requirements unless they emit more than 250 tons of pollution per year. Michael Hawthorne, the author's article, adds that most new refineries are expected to emit just below the 250 ton limit. As a result, a plant that emits 200 tons of pollution per year could currently be required to reduce its emissions to 10 tons, while the proposed rule changes would require little or nothing be done by the polluting plant.
Some environmental groups believe that one of the primary motives behind the rule change is to allow a switch to coal for ethanol production. Coal is cheaper than the natural gas that is commonly used in ethanol production but more polluting.
Ethanol gets a lot of political play as its proponents promise to wean the red, white and blue off foreign oil. Whether or not it's a green or sustainable alternative is still up for debate as far as I can tell. It certainly doesn't help that the Bush administration is quietly pushing rule changes and dirtying our discourse.
[Source: Chicago Tribune via Plenty Magazine]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Derek 11:44AM (10/23/2006)
So here's a question: Which is more efficient, coal gasefication or ethanol production? If we're going to use coal to power ethanol plants, why not just convert the coal straight to gasoline?
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Derek 11:49AM (10/23/2006)
I'm sorry, I meant to say coal liquification.
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Howard Lee Harkness 12:10PM (10/23/2006)
Political Correctness at work! Political Correctness makes lousy economics, lousy science, and doesn't do much for cleaning the environment, either.
So why doesn't (bio)diesel get the same kind of breaks?
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Jimmy 12:35AM (10/24/2006)
Derek, you don't *need* coal for ethanol, some just want to be cheap and dirty.
The exact emissions in question come from drying the wet distillers grain. The E3 BioFuels "closed loop" method cleverly skips that step by co-locating with livestock and using the wet grain directly as feed. Biomass fueled ethanol production should start next month at E3 BioFuels Mead, Neb. "closed-loop" 20mgpy ethanol plant. To be fair, they will use some natural gas to supplement the biogas digesters, but that is 25% or less.
Of course, the regulators should be encouraging green innovation rather than enabling "cheap and dirty" production. The NRDC has called for environmental performance standards for the biofuels industry, which I think is the right path.
It is possible to make ethanol very cleanly even using "conventional" technology.. a modern natural gas fired plant buying corn from a conservation tillage farm produces ethanol that represents a 60% green house gas reduction over petroleum fuel. The technology is commercially viable but will face stiff competition if the "cheap and dirty" producers are poorly regulated. In that regard, the ethanol industry is like every other industry :)
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Mark_H 12:33PM (10/24/2006)
I read about this in the Kansas City paper, thanks to a link from the oil drum. Just another example of our President's administration at work: let's subsidize them and weaken standards for emissions!
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Fernando Marquez 1:07PM (4/28/2007)
Everybody must be worried about this topic. Ethanol IS NOT a sustainable solution. EPA can open the doors but mother natura soon will extend an expensive bill, not only for ethanol businessmen, for all of us.
Fernando Marquez
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Fernando Marquez 9:50PM (4/29/2007)
We begun one year ago in Bogotá, Colombia, a judicial demand against the Colombian government, in head of ministries of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development, of Mines and Energy, Social Protection in which are also involved the DAMA (Administrative Department of Environment), entity in charge of the environmental surveillance in Bogotá, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and ECOPETROL, as entities linked to the Colombian government that have had active participation in the imposition of the biofuels use in Colombia.
The demand is based in diverse studies carried out in Colombia and other countries, included the United States and Brazil, country that has been presented as the best exponent in the success of these fuels; these studies has beeen demonstrated that biofuels have adverse effects on engines, food´s price, water quality and cultivation lands, and, what is specially serious, an important increase in the emission of substances like ozone, nitrogen oxides, CO2, widely mentioned in reference to greenhouse effect, production of acetaldehide, recognized internationally as causing agent of cancer and inductor of genetic alterations, produced exclusively from the ethanol combustion.
The demand in mention is currently in probatory stage, important results are expected, which will help us to understand in all its dimensions the effect of biofuels, since witness and experts from diverse origins, journalists, industrials ethanol and biodiesel producers, jurists and investigators in environmental areas, toxicology and of public health will act.
From the other hand, the presence of local and international observers will contribute to get objectivity in the adopted decisions about this topic, which will constitute an excellent reference point for our countries, now in the “boom of green fuels” whose consequences of all kinds are still unclear.
For interested people, the text of the above mentioned demand can be downloaded from our website http://www.sca.com.co/actividades.php (spanish only)
Cordially,
C. Fernando Márquez M.
Sociedad Colombiana de Automovilistas
C. E. O.
www.sca.com.co fernando.marquez@sca.com.co
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