The Environmental Protection Agency said it is raising the 2008 Renewable Fuels Standard for ethanol use to 7.76 percent of the nation's gas supply — from about 4.6 percent estimated in November — to comply with new legislation that requires 9 billion gallons of ethanol production this year.
In a notice published in the Federal Register, the EPA recalculated the standard using updated data on the volume of gasoline projected to be consumed in 2008.
An estimated 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol were used in 2007.
The Energy Independence and Security Act 2007 was passed into law in December, mandating at least 36 billion gallons of biofuel to be used nationwide by 2022 and allowing up to 15 billion gallons of that fuel annually to come from corn-based ethanol. (See Bush signs renewable fuels bill on Meatingplace.com, December 2o, 2007.)
While ethanol from non-corn inputs is expected to reach 3 billion gallons in 2016 and rise to 21 billion gallons by 2022, nearly all the biofuel in 2008 is expected to come from corn-based ethanol.
Meat industry groups have voiced concern the legislation will continue to pit food against fuel, raising already high feedgrain costs for animal agriculture.
The American Meat Institute said the new mandate will require the corn produced from more than 22 million acres.
U.S. farmers planted about 90 million acres of corn in 2007, but that acreage is expected to shrink in 2008 due to competition for soybean and wheat acres.
Source: Janie Gabbett on 2/18/2008 for Meatingplace.com