Hrdlicka: Biofuel future bright despite EPA decision
PERRY BEEMAN May 19, 2016 | 8:19 pm
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Iowa’s biofuel industry will thrive despite a setback from an Obama administration decision Wednesday, especially with the promise of biorenewable chemical production, a key observer in Iowa said today.
Joe Hrdlicka, executive director of the Iowa Biotechnology Association, said a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to raise the requirement that refiners blend ethanol into fuel — but not as much as Congress envisioned — brought widespread disappointment in Iowa, the nation’s top corn-grower.
“The major reaction is it is disappointing to see them not working more in line with what industry believes is congressional intent,” Hrdlicka said. “I don’t understand it. On the one hand we have (Agriculture) Secretary (Tom) Vilsack, who is so supportive of growing renewable energy and the bioeconomy, yet in a different agency we continue to see a lack of support.”
The EPA proposed that refiners blend an “ambitious yet achievable” 18.8 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2017. That preliminary figure is a small increase from the 18.1 billion gallons mandated by the EPA for 2016. It is below the 24 billion-gallon threshold established by Congress in 2007.
National and local agriculture groups blamed the situation on pressure from the oil industry, which has opposed growth in the ethanol mandate.
Hrdlicka said the biofuel industry has hit a bit of rough patch, but the promise of adding value by producing valuable chemicals such as food additives and solvents using biofuel byproducts makes the future bright.
The Iowa Legislature passed a bill this year to establish tax credits for those initiatives.
“There is no doubt that the renewable fuels aspect has plateaued to a degree, but we have only scratched the surface on the additional products that could emerge from this,” Hrdlicka said. “We can move in that direction, and from an economic development standpoint we should be incentivizing.”
“I am not sensing that anyone thinks there is a lack of support for continuing to move it forward. But the question is, why aren’t we being a little more aggressive? From an environmental footprint, this is really important to pursue.”
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