By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
On February 16, 2023, Representative Randy Feenstra (R-IA) introduced a legislative package that includes bills regarding researching the potential of biofuels to power jet engines and developing a commercially viable fuel cell system for cars and trucks powered exclusively by biofuels. The package includes:

• The Comparison of Sustainable Transportation (COST) Act would direct the Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Secretary of Energy to compare the financial and environmental costs between replacing the entire federal gasoline-powered fleet with either electric vehicles or E-85 capable flex-fuel cars and trucks;
   
• The Biojet Fuel Research Act would direct the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to establish a working group focused on identifying research and development needs to produce biojet fuel. The working group would consist of the Bioenergy Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), biorefinery stakeholders, agriculture research universities, and others; and
   
• The Biofuel Cell Research Act would direct the DOE Secretary to establish a research, development, and demonstration program for a commercially viable fuel cell system that uses biofuels as the main fuel source.

Feenstra introduced similar legislation in the 117th Congress.
 

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing on February 15, 2023, on “The Future of Low Carbon Transportation Fuels and Considerations for a National Clean Fuels Program.” The Committee heard from the following witnesses:

• Michael J. Graff, Chair and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), American Air Liquide Holdings Incorporated;
• Geoff Cooper, President and CEO, Renewable Fuels Association; and
• Chris Spear, President and CEO, American Trucking Association.

In his opening statement, Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) noted that when exploring ways to improve federal policies, he often looks to see what works well at the state level. According to Carper, “states have learned from the federal government’s mistakes when it comes to programs like the Renewable Fuel Standard” (RFS). States such as California and Oregon have implemented, or are considering implementing, technology-neutral low carbon fuel standards. Carper stated that unlike the RFS, “existing state programs often focus more on emissions reduction potential when determining what qualifies as a clean fuel. In addition to reducing the number of questions the states have to ask when determining which fuels qualify for a clean fuels program, this structure allows multiple options for obligated parties to comply.” Carper concluded his opening statement by expressing his hope “that today’s hearing is the first of many conversations on how we can bring together industry, environmental groups, agriculture and other stakeholders to further decarbonize our nation’s transportation fuels, while also supporting job creation across our nation.”

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
As reported in our January 4, 2023, blog item, on January 3, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of a draft document entitled “Biofuels and the Environment: Third Triennial Report to Congress (External Review Draft)” for public comment. 88 Fed. Reg. 72. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) and Office of Air and Radiation (OAR), in consultation with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE), prepared the document. The purpose of the report is to examine the effects of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program on the environment, including the impacts to date and likely future impacts to the nation’s air, land, and water resources. The draft report focuses on the dominant biofuel sources in the United States: (1) domestic corn ethanol from corn starch; (2) domestic biodiesel from soybean oil; (3) domestic biodiesel from fats, oils, and greases (FOG); and (4) imported ethanol from Brazilian sugarcane.
 
ERG, an EPA contractor, is organizing an independent external peer review of the draft report. The peer review meetings are open to anyone who would like to attend as an observer and will include a brief public comment period on the first day (February 24, 2023). Registration is required. Panel peer review meetings will be held:

• February 24, 2023, 11:00 a.m.-6:45 p.m. (EST);
   
• February 27, 2023, 11:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m. (EST); and
   
• February 28, 2023, 1:00 p.m.-3:40 p.m. (EST).

Comments on the draft report are due March 6, 2023.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) will hold a webinar on February 22, 2023, entitled “DOE’s Progress Toward Meeting the Goals of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge.” The Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Grand Challenge is a government-wide commitment to scale up production of SAF to 35 billion gallons per year by 2050 and reduce lifecycle aviation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 percent compared to conventional fuel. According to BETO, the upcoming webinar is an effort to increase SAF awareness and communicate the progress and impact of the SAF Grand Challenge. Attendees will learn about DOE’s focus on:

• SAF priorities and program alignment with the SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap;
• Implementation planning; and
• Stakeholder engagement and outreach.

The webinar will feature speakers from BETO, including Director Dr. Valerie Reed, who will share information about the six action areas outlined in the Roadmap that support the Grand Challenge goals. Scheduled BETO speakers include:

• Dr. Valerie Reed: Director -- Program Overview;
• Zia Haq: Senior Analyst -- SAF Overview and Enabling End Use;
• Dr. Art Wiselogel: Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellow -- Feedstock Innovation;
• Dr. Ian Rowe: Technology Manager, Conversion Research and Development (R&D) -- Conversion Innovation;
• Dr. Mark Shmorhun: Technology Manager, Systems, Development, and Integration -- Building Regional SAF Supply Chains;
• Andrea Bailey: Technology Manager, Data, Modeling, and Analysis -- Policy and Valuation Analysis; and
• Sheila Dillard: Communications Lead -- Communicating Progress and Building Support.

Attendees can submit questions prior to the event, no later than February 17, 2023, by sending an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
On February 8, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $25.5 million in funding to enable the sustainable use of domestic biomass and waste resources, such as agricultural residues and algae, to produce low-carbon biofuels and bioproducts. DOE notes that this funding will advance the Biden Administration’s goals of delivering an equitable, clean energy future, and will put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by 2050. According to DOE, the “Reducing Agricultural Carbon Intensity and Protecting Algal Crops” funding opportunity will improve the production of environmentally sustainable feedstocks for bioenergy through two topic areas:

• Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices for Low-Carbon Intensity Feedstocks; and
• Algae Crop Protection.

DOE states that “[r]ecognizing that decarbonizing transportation and agriculture are inherently linked when it comes to the thoughtful production and deployment of biofuels, this funding opportunity focuses on improving climate-smart agricultural practices that reduce the carbon intensity of biomass feedstocks used for biofuel production, and cultivating and protecting algae crops, an abundant and renewable biofuel source.” Both topic areas support DOE’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge goal of furthering the production of 35 billion gallons of SAF annually by 2050.
 
Concept papers are due by 5:00 p.m. (EDT) March 20, 2023, and full applications are due by 5:00 p.m. (EDT) on May 16, 2023.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on January 26, 2023, $118 million in funding for 17 projects to accelerate the production of sustainable biofuels for America’s transportation and manufacturing needs. According to DOE, the selected projects, located at universities and private companies, “will drive the domestic production of biofuels and bioproducts by advancing biorefinery development, from pre-pilot to demonstration, to create sustainable fuels that reduce emissions associated with fossil fuels.” Projects selected will contribute to meeting DOE’s goal to achieve cost-competitive biofuels and at least a 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.
 
According to DOE, “[m]ade from widely available domestic feedstocks and advanced refining technologies, energy-dense biofuels provide a pathway for low-carbon fuels that can lower greenhouse gas emissions throughout the transportation sector and accelerate the bioeconomy.” DOE notes that financing for novel biorefinery process systems can be a barrier to commercializing advanced biofuels, and states that its funding will reduce technological uncertainties and enable industry deployment. The selected projects include pre-pilot, pilot, and demonstration projects that will scale-up existing biomass to fuel technologies that will eventually create millions of gallons of low-carbon fuel annually.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on January 20, 2023, that a collaborative team of BETO-funded scientists from Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are searching for carbon utilization technologies that can make better use of the carbon dioxide generated by industry, transportation, and agriculture by transforming it into sustainable aviation fuel and other useful products. According to BETO, the goal is to identify catalysts that can make beneficial products, such as sustainable aviation fuel, efficiently and selectively. BETO states that methanol has “rich potential for uses that contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help in the fight against climate change.” It can generate electricity when used for fuel cells, serve as a heating fuel for boilers, or be used as a sustainable or blended fuel for road, marine, or (potentially) aviation. Additionally, methanol is used as a chemical industry feedstock for the synthesis of formaldehyde, acetic acid, and other health and life sciences products. BETO notes that the long-term challenge of the research will be scaling up scientific findings into commercial applications. With atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on the rise, “innovative research that finds ways to transform CO₂ in the atmosphere into something positive is more important than ever.”

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on December 15, 2022, that it intends to issue two funding opportunity announcements (FOA) in early 2023. According to BETO, these potential FOAs, “Reducing Agricultural Carbon Intensity and Protecting Algal Crops” (RACIPAC) and the “2023 Conversion R&D,” will enable the sustainable use of domestic biomass and waste resources to produce biofuels and bioproducts, and to advance the Biden Administration’s goal of delivering an equitable, clean energy future that puts the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, no later than 2050. The prospective RACIPAC FOA would support high-impact research and development (R&D), focusing on reducing the carbon intensity of agricultural feedstocks, improving soil carbon levels, and protecting cultivated algae from pests under two areas of interest:

• Climate-smart agricultural practices for low carbon intensity feedstocks; and
• Algae crop protection.

The prospective 2023 Conversion R&D FOA would support the development of technologies that convert domestic lignocellulosic biomass and waste resources, including industrial syngas, into affordable biofuels and bioproducts that significantly reduce carbon emissions under two main areas of interest:

• Overcoming barriers to syngas conversion; and
• Strategic opportunities for decarbonization of the chemicals industry through biocatalysts.

According to BETO, both potential FOAs will help to meet the goals of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, which are to reduce aviation emissions by 20 percent by 2030 and produce sufficient sustainable aviation fuel to meet 100 percent of domestic aviation demand by 2050.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
On December 2, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule determining that renewable diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, naphtha, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) produced from canola/rapeseed oil via a hydrotreating process all meet the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction threshold of 50 percent required for advanced biofuels and biomass-based diesel (BBD) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. 87 Fed. Reg. 73956. EPA states that based on the analyses described in the earlier notice of proposed rulemaking associated with this action, it is adding these pathways to the list of approved pathways in the RFS regulations, making them eligible to generate Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN), provided they satisfy the other definitional and RIN generation criteria for renewable fuel specified in the RFS regulations. EPA also amended the RFS regulations by adding a new definition of “canola/rapeseed oil.” The final rule was effective on January 3, 2023.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
On January 3, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of a draft document entitled Biofuels and the Environment: Third Triennial Report to Congress (External Review Draft) for public comment. 88 Fed. Reg. 72. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) and Office of Air and Radiation (OAR), in consultation with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE), prepared the document. The draft report is responsive to Section 204 of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA). The purpose of the report is to examine the effects of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program on the environment, including the impacts to date and likely future impacts to the nation’s air, land, and water resources. It focuses on the dominant biofuel sources in the United States: (1) domestic corn ethanol from corn starch; (2) domestic biodiesel from soybean oil; (3) domestic biodiesel from fats, oils, and greases (FOG); and (4) imported ethanol from Brazilian sugarcane. The draft report concludes that the RFS Program likely played a relatively minor role (0-0.4 billion gallons per year) in the growth of corn ethanol in the United States from 2002-2012 and may have played a more important role (0-2.1 billion gallons per year) since 2013. According to the draft report, the more prominent role of the RFS Program on corn ethanol production in the United States in more recent years is consistent with the methyl-tert-butyl-ether (MTBE) phaseout by 2006, expiration of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) at the end of 2010, and lower oil prices after 2015. For biodiesel and renewable diesel, which may be produced from a variety of feedstocks (e.g., soybean, FOGs), the draft report states that the conclusion on the attributional effect of the RFS Program is different. There is evidence that the RFS Program has driven a significant portion of the use of these biofuels since 2010; there is insufficient information available to quantify the attributional effect of the RFS Program, however. The draft report notes that despite the finding of relatively modest effects of the RFS Program nationally for the environmental impacts assessed, these may have important cumulative impacts on the environment. The draft report states that international effects associated with imported biofuels are even more uncertain than national effects but are likely modest as well given the relatively small quantity of imports relative to domestic biofuel production since the RFS Program went into effect.
 
The draft report reinforces the broad conclusions from the first and second Reports to Congress on biofuels in general and further evaluates attribution of those effects to the RFS Program more specifically. According to the draft report, biofuels continue to have the potential for both positive and negative environmental effects, depending on the many factors identified in the report. The draft report notes that at the time of writing, the likely future effects of the RFS Program are highly uncertain. The first and second Reports to Congress “had the benefit of statutory biofuel volumes established by EISA as a guideline for the likely future,” but these statutory volumes ended in 2022. EPA continues to work on issuing final annual biofuel standards under the RFS Program for future years. These standards are critical to estimating accurately the likely future effects of the RFS Program. Since these final standards for future years are not yet available, they are not included in this report. The draft report notes that several other factors contribute to additional uncertainty, including ongoing recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainty in the penetration of E15 in the marketplace, competition with other technologies such as electric vehicles, and continued but slow growth of cellulosic ethanol production from agricultural or marginal lands. As policy and market conditions change, so may the factors to consider and the estimate of the likely future effects of the RFS Program.
 
EPA states that it is releasing the draft document to seek review by a contractor-led peer review panel. EPA will post the external peer review panel, peer review meeting dates, and registration information on its website. Comments on the draft report are due March 6, 2023.

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