Sustainable Bioenergy, Farms, and Forests - May 2, 2014

A weekly look at sustainable bioenergy, farm, and forest policy issues

 

 

 

 

The “Blend Wall,” a Tale of Infrastructure Woe

 

The promise of the RFS was diversified biofuels feedstocks, to provide the United States with cost-competitive petroleum alternatives. Part of this was achieved by incentivizing FlexFuel Vehicle (FFV) manufacturing, which put millions of E85 compatible cars on the road. Yet today, only 12 percent of FFV drivers are filling up with E85 today, and the U.S. retail fuel market has reached the “blend wall” earlier than anticipated, thanks to lowered gasoline consumption, higher fuel efficiencies, but mostly because of a lack of ethanol infrastructure.

 

 

Wyden Urges Congress to Reform Wildfire Funding & Realize Economic Value of Forest Management Practices

 

On May 1, Senator Wyden (D-OR) urged Congress to deal with wildfire funding before the beginning of the 2014 wildfire season. Already, the 2014 season is expected to exceed the current wildfire budget by $470 million. Senator Wyden remarked, “It is time to break the destructive cycle that underfunds fire prevention and shorts forest management and start treating the largest wildfires that rage across the West every year for what they are – natural disasters.” His remarks echo what scientists and forest managers have been urging for some time – break the cycle of dangerous and costly fires by funding hazardous fuels reduction projects.

 

To Contact the Author: Jessie Stolark at jstolark[at]eesi.org

 

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