Big Oil vs. Big Ag

The Des Moines Register looks at the battle over the Renewable Fuel Standard:

The steadily growing Renewable Fuel Standard requires the blending of advanced biofuels, cellulosic biofuel and ethanol made from corn. By 2022, 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels are required to be part of the nation’s fuel supply. While most gasoline contains E10 — a mix of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline — the government has approved a blend with 15 percent ethanol (E15) in newer vehicles, but it has been slow to be adopted by fueling stations.
Not surprisingly, the bills to change or repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard have come from lawmakers representing states with little agriculture or parts of the Midwest where ethanol is not as big a part of the farm economy.
Legislation introduced this month would essentially eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard. It would end corn-based ethanol targets requiring a specific number of gallons made from the crop to be included in the fuel supply. The amount of the renewable fuel allowed in gasoline also would be capped at 10 percent — rather than the 15 percent now allowed — and annual targets for cellulosic ethanol use would have to be set at a level reflecting what the market can realistically produce. The Environmental Protection Agency has been criticized for being too aggressive in setting production levels for the nascent industry in an effort to foster growth. Another bill would order the EPA to withdraw its approval of the 15 percent ethanol blend.
Any success in significantly altering the Renewable Fuel Standard would likely thwart the ethanol industry’s long-term plan of expanding the use of its fuel in gasoline and diesel. More important, it would likely stymie the rollout of the next wave of renewable fuels known as cellulosic ethanol, which is made with crop residue, grasses, wood chips and other materials. Cellulosic fuels have advanced more slowly than envisioned, but they are viewed by the industry as a critical source of growth.

Really, this is a battle between two huge bloated industries trying to profit from fighting the inevitable change to our way of life.  Big Oil wants to get the subsidized ethanol industry crushed, and farmers are trying to keep the false and counterproductive demand for their crops, which is supporting the bubble in ag and farmland prices.  The RFS is misguided and has to be changed, cellulosic ethanol is likely to be a pipe dream for many more years, shale oil is postponing the sunset of our automobile economy, but in the end, we need to change our way of life.