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From: "Walke, John" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 9:10:51 AM
Subject: [air-mail] FW: EPA Launches Major Ecological Cost-Benefit Study On Biofuel Impacts
EPA Launches Major Ecological Cost-Benefit Study On Biofuel Impacts
As policymakers prepare to further boost production of biofuels, EPA is launching a first-time study to assess the ecological costs and benefits of increased biofuels production in the Upper Midwest , which will supplement the traditional cost-benefit survey EPA conducted as part of its recent renewable fuels standard (RFS).
Agency sources say the new project will focus on assessing how environmental changes likely to accompany increased biofuels demand --- such as increased corn planting --- will economically affect the viability of ecological assets, such as water quality and water availability for agricultural use.
That is a change from the research done to support the RFS --- which mandates production of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol by 2012 --- for which EPA researchers studied the energy, emissions, air quality, and economic impacts of the standard using traditional environmental and economic measures, such as tons of emissions reductions and changes in corn prices.
A draft research plan for the study, discussed during a May 8-9 EPA workshop in Chicago , calls for EPA to assess how increasing demand for ethanol will impact a variety of Upper Midwest ecoservices, including water availability and quality, as well as how air quality will be affected by emissions from biorefineries, especially nitrogen emissions.
The research, likely to begin in fiscal year 2008 or 2009, will help EPA and other federal agencies make regulatory decisions about how best to use and maintain valuable land throughout the Upper Midwest, likely encompassing all of EPA Regions V and VII, including Iowa and other corn-producing states important to the ethanol market, EPA sources say.
The new study comes as Congress is preparing to consider further increasing renewable fuels mandates. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) last week introduced a bill that would increase the RFS to 36 billion gallons by 2022, with 15 billion gallons set to come from corn ethanol. Reid’s bill is scheduled for consideration on the Senate floor after Memorial Day.
However, key EPA advisers are urging the agency to ramp up its assessment of the environmental impacts of increased biofuels production due to concerns of increased environmental harm. EPA’s National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy & Technology earlier this year called on the agency to launch an aggressive new review of the environmental impacts of biofuels production. EPA clean air advisers have also recently launched a new panel to assess the air quality impacts of biofuels (see related story).
Some EPA officials have also raised concerns that increased biofuel production could deplete ecological resources. For example, agency officials recently urged state groundwater regulators to document cases where ethanol plants are harming local water supplies and water quality, as a way to show Congress the harm that will result from additional subsidies for corn production to produce ethanol and other renewable fuels. “We need a strategy to document the downside [of ethanol production] as it’s happening,” including identifying the “war stories” about wells drying up, the officials said last month at a meeting of federal and state water officials.
Many state air regulators are also concerned that increased use of ethanol could increase ozone emissions, since ethanol use and production can lead to increased emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides --- which are ozone precursors --- over conventional gasoline.
The upcoming ecoservices study could consider the air quality impact of increased ethanol use on the environment, since the draft research strategy calls for an assessment of whether EPA’s current secondary standard for nitrogen oxides (NOx), which is set at a level protective of the environment, is adequate.
EPA is currently reviewing the science behind the NOx standards and may recommend changes if available data suggest they are warranted. Because the NOx review began recently, agency officials thought conducting an ecoservices impact assessment of that standard would be timely and of national interest, one agency source says.
The NOx assessment and the biofuels impact assessment will likely inform one another because biofuels refining and burning, especially from corn, involves high levels of nitrogen emissions.
The ecoservices project will likely include work from several agencies and programs, including the EPA Environmental Monitoring & Assessment Program, which assesses the status and trends of national ecological resources, as well as the Agriculture Department and the U. S. Geological Survey, according to the agency sources.
The study on biofuels is one of several studies EPA is launching to assess natural or ecological “services” such as clean drinking water for human consumption, irrigation water for agriculture, clean watersheds for fisheries and bee availability for crop production. In addition to the biofuels and other studies in the Upper Midwest, EPA is conducting several other studies in other ecosystems, including a look at the Willamette River in Oregon to learn more about a significant single ecological resource and a full examination of ecological issues in Tampa Bay, FL, to gain insight into real-world ecological decision-making in a human setting, agency sources say. The agency is also conducting a broad examination of wetlands as a representative of how ecoservices can be studied and monetized in a given type of ecosystem.
The Willamette River and Tampa Bay were selected as research sites for the new ecoservices research strategy about two months ago, the agency source says, while the Upper Midwest was selected more recently to present a diversity of research areas, from the Southeast to the Pacific Northwest to the Great Lakes .
The research strategy on ecoservices will likely be finalized later this summer, after the agency receives input from its Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC). The strategy will then be incorporated into a larger multi-year research plan that will be reviewed by the Science Advisory Board in the fall, according to the agency source.
BOSC will meet with agency staff to discuss the ecoservices strategy May 23.
Researchers decided to include biofuels in the assessment after looking at maps of biofuel refinery locations, which showed a heavy concentration in the Midwestern states, the source says.
Measuring ecoservices has become a larger part of assessing the ecological benefits associated with EPA’s environmental protection programs.
The shift has come because of low scores from the White House Office of Management & Budget’s (OMB) Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) program, which is intended to help the administration assess program performance and set budget levels.
EPA’s ecological research programs drew low grades during recent PART review for failing to demonstrate tangible benefits. For instance, a 2005 PART review gave the program an 80 percent score on “Program Purpose & Design” but only a 20 percent score on “Program Results/Accountabil ity.”
Past negative scores have led to the White House proposing reduced ecological research program funding in previous years’ budgets. A second agency source says the ecoservices effort “is felt to be important now to show the effectiveness” of the research program, but says there is “no way of knowing” whether a successful ecoservices assessment project will result in more funding for the overall research program in the future.
Another ecosystems research program PART review is planned for work done in FY07, but details were not available as of press time. An OMB spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. -- Adam Sarvana
Date: May 22, 2007
© Inside Washington Publishers
John D. Walke
Director, Clean Air Program
Natural Resources Defense Council
1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington , D.C. 20005-3928
(202) 289-2406 (Ph)
(202) 425-4633 (M)
(202) 289-1060 (Fax)
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