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Source: North Platte Telegraph
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., is part of a bipartisan group of senators who have introduced legislation to protect biofuels from potential Environmental Protection Agency regulations regarding indirect land use.
Joining Nelson are Sens. Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, both of Iowa.
The legislation, introduced last week, would prevent the EPA from going ahead with regulations that would limit the production and use of biofuels required by Congress' 2007 energy bill.
According to Nelson, the EPA regulations would penalize U.S. biofuel producers for greenhouse gas emissions that the EPA claims result from changes in land use in other countries, such as the clearing of land for cropping, allegedly caused by the increased production of biofuels in the United States.
Nebraska is the nation's second leading producer of ethanol behind Iowa.
The proposed amendment to the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations bill would prohibit the EPA, for one year, from spending funds to include international indirect land use change emissions in the implementation of the renewable fuels standard (RFS). At this time, the data and analytic methodologies for credibly calculating international indirect land use change emissions do not exist. Because of this, including these international emissions in the EPA's rule would put an unjust burden on the biofuels industry.
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