Biofuels Issues and Trends

"Biofuels is a collective term for liquid fuels derived from renewable sources, including ethanol, biodiesel, and other renewable liquid fuels. This report focuses on ethanol and biodiesel, the most widely available biofuels. From 2009 to the middle of 2012, the U.S. biofuels industry increased its output and prepared to meet an expanded Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), which requires increasing volumes of biofuels use. In 2011, the biofuels industry transitioned away from tax incentives for non-cellulosic biofuels, which expired at the end of 2011. Annual ethanol and biodiesel consumption, production, imports, and exports during 2009-11 are summarized in Table 1..."
Biofuels Issues and Trends

Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): Overview and Issues
"Federal policy has played a key role in the emergence of the U.S. biofuels industry. Policy
measures include minimum renewable fuel usage requirements, blending and production tax
credits, an import tariff, loans and loan guarantees, and research grants. This report focuses on the mandated minimum usage requirements—referred to as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)—
whereby a minimum volume of biofuels is to be used in the national transportation fuel supply
each year. It describes the general nature of the RFS mandate and its implementation, and outlines
some emerging issues related to the sustainability of the continued growth in U.S. biofuels
production needed to fulfill the expanding RFS mandate, as well as the emergence of potential
unintended consequences of this rapid expansion..."

Using Biofuel Tax Credits to Achieve Energy and Environmental Policy Goals
"The federal government supports the use of biofuels—transportation fuels produced
mainly from renewable plant matter, such as corn—in the pursuit of national energy, environ-
mental, and agricultural policy goals. Tax credits encourage the production and sale of bio-
fuels in the United States, effectively lowering the private costs of producing biofuels, such
as ethanol or biodiesel, relative to the costs of producing their substitutes—gasoline and
diesel fuel. In addition, federal mandates require the use of specified minimum amounts and
types of biofuel each year through 2022. Together, the credits and mandates increase domestic
supplies of energy and reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases, albeit at a cost to taxpayers.

This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study, which was prepared at the request of the
Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure of the Sen-
ate Committee on Finance, assesses the incentives provided by the biofuel tax credits for
producing different types of biofuels and analyzes whether they favor one type of biofuel
over others. In addition, the study estimates the cost to U.S. taxpayers of reducing the use
of petroleum fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases through those tax credits; it also
analyzes the interaction of the credits and the biofuel mandates. In keeping with CBO’s
mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, the study contains no recommendations..."

Growing America’s Fuel An Innovation Approach to Achieving the President’s Biofuels Target
"Vision. New jobs and greater economic vitality in rural America, increased energy independence, reduced economic vulnerability to volatile oil prices and uncertain supplies, technological and industrial leadership in renewable biofuels, and reduced global warming pollution – all will be achieved by fulfilling the President’s commitment to meeting Congressional biofuels goals.

Strategy. Supporting the existing biofuels industry, while accelerating the commercial and sustainable establishment of the advanced biofuels industry, by using the best skill and knowledge across many Federal departments, as well as public-private partnerships."