Election Impacts on Sustainable Bioenergy

The re-election of President Obama bodes well for the continued development of advanced biofuels, bioenergy, and other rural renewable energy initiatives. Key departures in the House and Senate, however, leave some big shoes to fill among bioenergy supporters. Further, the elections did not significantly alter the political balance in Congress, and the dwindling number of members who have demonstrated a willingness and ability to work productively across the aisle may have shrunk yet further. It remains to be seen if the two parties will come away from the elections with a new resolve to work together to address the nation’s significant economic, energy, and environmental challenges.

The Obama Administration has been a strong supporter of developing advanced biofuels, bio-based products, bioenergy, and other rural renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. The Administration has viewed continued research, development, demonstration and deployment of these technologies as being critical to addressing multiple economic, energy, and environmental challenges simultaneously (see recent examples below). There will likely be a number of staffing changes in the White House and in cabinet posts as the Administration begins its second term. These may have some impact on the Administration’s bioenergy priorities moving ahead – especially if there are changes at DOE or EPA, as recent news reports have speculated.

In the House, five members of the bi-partisan House Biomass Caucus will not be returning, including co-chair Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) and Representatives Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Wally Herger (R-CA) (retired), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) (retired), and Tim Holden (D-PA). Other biofuel supporters who will not be returning include Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Norm Dicks (D-WA) (retired), and Tim Johnson (R-IL) (retired).

In the Senate, the departures of Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) (retired), Kent Conrad (D-ND) (retired), Dick Lugar (R-IN), Ben Nelson (D-NE) (retired), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) (retired) are losses both among biofuel supporters and, more broadly, among those in the Senate who have consistently demonstrated a willingness and ability to work across the aisle to address the nation’s energy challenges.

Will the two parties, the House, the Senate, and the White House discover a new resolve in the wake of the elections to begin to work together? Among the issues still unresolved from the current 112th Congress are questions such as:

• How urgent and important is the threat of global climate change, and what are the best ways that the federal government can help mitigate it and adapt to it?
• What energy policies will best assure U.S. economic, energy, and environmental security in the decades ahead?
• What farm policies will best assure that U.S. agriculture and forestry are economically and environmentally sustainable – and able to meet the nation’s needs for food, feed, fiber, fuel – in the decades ahead in the face of increasingly extreme and variable weather events?
• What is the appropriate role for the federal government in promoting technologies and markets for renewable biofuels, bioenergy, other forms of renewable energy, and energy efficiency?

Examples of recent related Obama Administration initiatives in the news include:

• The USDA announcement October 16 of the creation of the sixth regional biofuels research and development center at the Penn State University. It will develop biomass supply chains for the production of liquid transportation and aviation biofuels in the Northeast;
• The USDA announcement October 19 of 244 new awards for rural energy efficiency and renewable energy projects under the Rural Energy for America Program; and
• Continued development of advanced biofuels to reduce the dependence of the U.S. military on petroleum, as reported in Renewable Energy World on October 22 .