EPA mum on request by Texas governor to scale back renewable fuels standard

摘要

A key Environmental Protection Agency official gave no indication last week whether the Bush administration would grant a request by the state of Texas to weaken a federal mandate that requires 36 billion gallons of ethanol and other biofu-els to be blended into US gasoline supplies by 2022. In an interview on the sidelines of a Senate hearing Thursday, Robert Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator in EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, said the agency will decide by July 24, but has not made up its mind just yet. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 established the federal Renewable Fuel Standard which called for 9 billion gallons of biofuels to be blended into the nation's gasoline and other transportation fuels in 2008. Last year's Energy Independence and Security Act raised the quota to 36 billion gallons by 2022. But Texas Governor Rick Perry wants EPA to cut that mandate in half, saying the push to produce biofuels from corn and other crops is driving up food prices and hurting the livestock industry. At the Senate hearing last week, Meyers said EPA is also trying to determine what effect the Midwest floods would have on the renewable fuel program. "We are evaluating both impacts on feedstock availability for use in ethanol production, as well [as] impacts on fuel production and distribution systems," Meyers told the Senate Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Oversight Subcommittee.