U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of a “Biofuels Interagency Working Group” to be composed of the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). The working group will be tasked with supporting the U.S. biofuels industry through funds to support existing refiners, new loans to increase crop production and the building of refineries.
Balancing biofuel production with environmental concerns, the EPA is working on new rules that will take into account potential environmental damage caused by biofuel production and use. The EPA is specifically looking to regulate the processes that produce corn ethanol while promoting ethanol production from other biomass sources. The Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital blog points out that the new rules are unduly harsh on the corn ethanol industry and may actually hurt the administration’s goals.
