EPA rule boosts ethanol after fierce lobbying effort

The Environmental Protection Agency handed a victory to ethanol producers Wednesday by issuing final regulations that conclude corn-based fuels will meet greenhouse gas standards imposed under a 2007 energy law. 



The release of the final regulations follow a fierce campaign by ethanol companies who alleged 2009 draft rules unfairly found that large volumes of ethanol production would not meet targets in the statute for reducing greenhouse gasses.



The new rules state that corn-based ethanol will meet a requirement of the 2007 law that they must emit at least 20 percent fewer “lifecycle” greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline.

The statute expanded the national biofuels use mandate to reach 36 billion gallons annually by 2022. If the EPA had ruled that corn-based fuels did not meet their emissions target, the fuels could have been frozen out of the market.



The issue has been vital to the ethanol lobby, which feared that an adverse finding could stymie investment and tarnish the fuel’s image. However, the nation’s current ethanol production – which is about 12 billion gallons annually – was exempted from the law’s emissions mandate.