Ethanol Group Sues California over Emission Standards

Ethanol makers sued California over the state’s low-carbon fuel standards, charging that the regulation will hurt the industry and the nation’s need for more diversified transportation fuels.

California’s low-carbon regulations, passed last April, require that all emissions connected with the production of a fuel be considered when counting carbon emissions. For corn-based ethanol, for example, that includes the emissions created as corn is plant, harvested and ground into fuel.

The Renewable Fuels Association filed the suit. The group said in a release that the regulation would “cripple the nation’s effort to move to more diversified sources of U.S-produced ethanol, including ethanol from feedstocks other than corn,” Bloomberg said.

California is the single largest user of gasoline and the ethanol industry is concerned that other states will follow California’s lead and adopt similar regulations.

California’s regulation requires a 10% reduction in the carbon content of transportation fuels by 2020, Bloomberg said.

source: ttnews