Gas 2.0

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 09:54 AM PST

A cornfield at dusk on the Great Plains (Photo: James Jordan/flickr)

Last year the U.S. produced 11.1 billion gallons of biofuel. Obama's new plan states that by 2022, 21 billion gallons of renewable fuels will need to come from so-called advanced biofuels.

[Ed. Note: Yesterday, Tim Hurst over at Ecopolitology asked me to break down the recently released Obama administration plan to increase the amount of renewable fuels produced in our country from the current 11.1 billion gallons per year to 36 billion gallons per year in 2022. I happily obliged. The following is an excerpt from the post on Ecopolitology with a link at the end to read the full post.]

This decision has been a long time in coming. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) actually started the whole process. Until now, however, the strategy to get to the goals set forth in the EISA were terribly murky. With yesterday's announcement, the Obama Administration has set clear goals to achieving the required 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022. Last year the U.S. produced 11.1 billion gallons of biofuels. The new plan announced today states that by 2022, 21 billion gallons of renewable fuels will need to come from so-called advanced biofuels—biofuels that have at least a 50% reduction in GHG emissions when compared to their gas and diesel counterparts.

In addition to the 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels, requirements set forth by EISA dictated that any new renewable fuel facility constructed after enactment of EISA had to have at least a 20% reduction in GHG emissions when calculated on a lifecycle, cradle-to-grave basis—this includes any new corn ethanol facilities.

Read the rest of the post over at Ecopolitology…

Utah Law Would Make Natural Gas Conversions $8,000 Cheaper

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 08:47 AM PST

Phill—Honda's home CNG refueling station

If a bill currently working its way through the Utah legislature becomes law, the installation cost of compressed natural gas (CNG) conversion retrofit kits in gas-powered vehicles would drop by about 57% in the state—from a current average of $14,000 to a much more reasonable $6,000.

CNG powered cars hold a ton of promise as an alternative to gas and diesel due to their extremely low emissions, low wear and tear on engines, low cost of fuel, and the abundant availability of natural gas from domestic sources.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the legislation came about as a direct result of frustration by Utah residents and lawmakers with the perceived burdensome regulations imposed on CNG conversion kits by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to CNG conversion advocates, the current EPA rules surrounding the kits are too stringent, leading to inflated prices and a dearth of kits for a tiny selection of vehicle models.

To get around the EPA rules, the proposed state law would create a process whereby a CNG conversion kit would not have to be certified by EPA to be considered a legal conversion. Instead the kit would simply have to be approved and installed by a Utah Division of Air Quality certified technician and checked for safety every 3 years or 36,000 miles. According to the bill’s sponsors, the law would make much less expensive kits available to a larger selection of cars. And, get this… apparently the EPA is okay with this approach!

As the bill’s sponsor, Republican State Representative Jack Draxler said that the main goal is to get as many clean burning CNG vehicles on the road as possible in a short time. “This winter we’ve had red-air days going into red-air weeks and … almost red-air months,” Mr. Draxler said in the Salt Lake Tribune article. “We will never get enough vehicles on the road running on compressed natural gas if we wait for the EPA.”

I’m generally resistant to taking pot shots at big federal agencies for a calculated political gain. I mean it’s certainly easy enough to bash an agency like the EPA for doing something wrong, but really the core problem lies with our ridiculously out-of-whack political process—part of which is due to our politicians making the very institutions we depend on look like idiots even though those institutions are simply implementing the laws the politicians created.

However, in this case it seems the EPA needs to re-evaluate their CNG kit policies… especially if a state can figure out how to get around the regulations and, in the end, the EPA is fine with that loophole. Just make the loophole the actual policy and problem solved. If this is a problem nationwide, it seems that Utah’s solution could be a template for other states looking for ways to reduce the emissions of cars already on the roads.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune | Image Credit: Nick Chambers