TO: Interested Parties FR: Jane Kleeb DA: February 24, 2016 RE: Recent Studies Show Ethanol Significantly Cleaner Than Oil Environmental champion U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer said in a Senate hearing today that “the RFS is a critical piece of our nation’s effort to reduce climate pollution.” The Environmental Protection Agency’s Acting Assistant Administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation Janet McCabe pointed to advanced biofuels as an essential piece of meeting our climate commitments, asserting that cellulosic ethanol is the lowest carbon fuel in the world and “is absolutely critical ” in meeting the President’s carbon reduction goals. These remarks build on commitments made by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy a few months ago that the Administration would get the RFS back on track because it is a “vital tool ” in the fight against climate change. While the oil industry uses stale and long-disproven talking points in an attempt to undermine the environmental benefits of ethanol, numerous new studies have found that a) ethanol is cleaner than oil, b) ethanol is getting increasingly cleaner, and c) oil is getting dirtier and more damaging. This evidence has built up over years. A DOE and EPA study from the Argonne National Laboratory found that ethanol cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent compared to regular gasoline—advanced biofuels by 108 percent or even more. And notably, a number of recent studies from just the last year (laid out below) demonstrate the indisputable fact that ethanol increasingly benefits our environment. But oil—harmful to our environment to begin with—is getting even worse. Union of Concerned Scientists: Oil is Getting Dirtier, Ethanol is Getting Cleaner In a newly released report this month, the Union of Concerned Scientists describes the progress biofuels and fuel efficiency have made, while pollution from oil extraction and refining has increased by close to one-third in just the past decade. That pollution now varies by over five times: from less than 50 kilograms of carbon emissions per barrel to over 250 kilograms— only a small part of gasoline’s total climate impact.
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TO: Interested PartiesFR: Jane KleebDA: February 24, 2016RE: Recent Studies Show Ethanol Significantly Cleaner Than Oil
Environmental champion U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer said in a Senate hearing today that “the RFS is a critical piece of our nation’s effort to reduce climate pollution.” The Environmental Protection Agency’s Acting Assistant Administrator of the Office of Air and Radiation Janet McCabe pointed to advanced biofuels as an essential piece of meeting our climate commitments, asserting that cellulosic ethanol is the lowest carbon fuel in the world and “is absolutely critical” in meeting the President’s carbon reduction goals. These remarks build on commitments made by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy a few months ago that the Administration would get the RFS back on track because it is a “vital tool” in the fight against climate change.
While the oil industry uses stale and long-disproven talking points in an attempt to undermine the environmental benefits of ethanol, numerous new studies have found that a) ethanol is cleaner than oil, b) ethanol is getting increasingly cleaner, and c) oil is getting dirtier and more damaging.
This evidence has built up over years. A DOE and EPA study from the Argonne National Laboratory found that ethanol cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent compared to regular gasoline—advanced biofuels by 108 percent or even more. And notably, a number of recent studies from just the last year (laid out below) demonstrate the indisputable fact that ethanol increasingly benefits our environment. But oil—harmful to our environment to begin with—is getting even worse.
Union of Concerned Scientists: Oil is Getting Dirtier, Ethanol is Getting CleanerIn a newly released report this month, the Union of Concerned Scientists describes the progress biofuels and fuel efficiency have made, while pollution from oil extraction and refining has increased by close to one-third in just the past decade.
That pollution now varies by over five times: from less than 50 kilograms of carbon emissions per barrel to over 250 kilograms—only a small part of gasoline’s total climate impact.
Even small increases in the emissions of the oil supply chain add up quickly. “Over the course of 2015 to 2035, the addition of just one kilogram of emissions per barrel of oil per year (a rise of less than 1 percent per year, and much slower than what we have seen in the last decade) would increase cumulative emissions from oil production and refining by approximately one billion tons—roughly the tailpipe emissions of all of the gasoline-powered vehicles in the United States in 2014.”
On the other hand, ethanol blended into gasoline today is about 20 percent cleaner than gasoline.
Life Cycle Associates: Biofuels Use Causes Major Cuts in GHG EmissionsIn November 2015, Life Cycle Associates found significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions due to the Renewable Fuel Standard.
The RFS has resulted in cumulative GHG emissions reductions of 354 million metric tons over a decade.
That amount is equivalent to emissions from 1.9 million railcars of coal burned, 74 million passenger cars, or equivalent to the carbon sequestration of close to 300 million acres of forest on a yearly basis.
The study also found that corn ethanol reduced emissions by 29 percent on average in comparison to petroleum in 2008. And by 2015, that reduction grew to 39 percent.
University of Montana Finds Increasing Land Degradation from Fossil FuelsAn April 2015 study from the University of Montana concluded that fossil fuels, and the means to obtain them, are devastating our environment, threatening our land and ecosystem at an alarming rate.
Increased oil and gas extraction from 2000 to 2013 caused 7.4 million acres of lost land.
That amount is the equivalent of three Yellowstone National Parks, or a loss of 120 million bushels of wheat.
USDA Report Finds Less Energy Used to Produce More Corn EthanolFindings from a study released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in February 2016, show that the production of ethanol now uses less energy than it produces, in a substantial net energy gain.
Nitrogen and direct energy use for fuel and electricity, the largest energy components of corn production, both declined since the mid-1990s—with nitrogen decreasing by 20 percent and direct energy decreasing by 50 percent.
These decreases have come as ethanol yields have upped by 10 percent in the same time period.
Biotechnology Innovation Organization Finds RFS Responsible for Drastically Cutting GHGsIn June 2015, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization examined greenhouse gas emissions reductions during the 10 years under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
In the 10 years of its existence, the RFS has cut transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by nearly 590 million metric tons—the equivalent of taking over 124 million cars off the road in the course of the decade.
