Harry Simpson: To fight climate change, EPA should prioritize biodiesel

In California, severe drought and raging wildfires are reminders of the realities of climate change and the urgent need for immediate, coordinated and effective action to protect our state and planet.

This is why we, as a producer of clean-burning alternative diesel fuel here in the Central Valley, are very concerned about state and federal policies for promoting cleaner fuels – particularly a pending EPA rule that will help determine how much biodiesel and other renewable transportation fuels we use in the coming years.

We are proud to bring biodiesel’s many environmental and economic benefits to California’s groundbreaking leadership efforts on improving air quality and fighting climate change, especially in the transportation sector, which accounts for about half of the energy we use and almost 40 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

As California’s largest producer of biodiesel, we will produce over 15 million gallons this year of renewable replacement for petroleum-based diesel from a variety of resources such as recycled cooking oil, inedible animal fats and inedible distiller’s corn oil from California’s ethanol plants. This provides significant air quality benefits, including a 48 percent reduction in particulate emissions that are especially critical in the Central Valley.

Our biodiesel production facility in Bakersfield will make a direct economic contribution of approximately $45 million to California’s economy in 2015. We are one of six biodiesel facilities in California, each making important environmental and economic contributions.

Our industry is playing an important role in helping to meet the aggressive greenhouse gas reducing standards of AB 32 by providing transportation fuel with the lowest carbon-intensity scores commercially available in large volumes. This program, which gives the transportation fuels industry critical options for reducing carbon emissions, is a national model that has incentivized use of biodiesel and other low-carbon fuels.

Nationally, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act has created targets for renewable fuels to reduce carbon emissions, improve America’s long-term energy security and contribute to economic growth. The Renewable Fuel Standard program is administered by the U.S. EPA, which is considering national regulations for how much renewable fuel, including biodiesel, must be blended into the nation’s transportation fuel supply through 2017.

Strong renewable standards will provide much-needed carbon reductions, stimulate economic development and create well-paying jobs. A strong renewable standard will reduce costs for consumers as the industry achieves greater efficiencies and additional competition enters the market.

But weak standards, lowering the amount of biofuel required, will lead to contraction in the industry, discourage investment and make it more expensive to get financing. In 2014, a joint letter from the California Energy Commission and the California Air Resources Board to the EPA urged strong renewable fuels standards. The administration has proposed some growth, but it is too modest. The domestic U.S. biodiesel industry has the capacity to produce 160 percent of the proposed 2015 biodiesel requirement.

Somehow the EPA felt it was appropriate to approve imported biomass-based diesel from various countries (including Argentina, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia) to be used for RFS compliance. This year, the National Biodiesels Board expects 450 million to 500 million gallons of biomass diesel will be imported. These imports will account for 26 to 30 percent of the proposed 2015 RFS national requirement for biomass diesel, even though the domestic industry already is able to produce 160 percent of this requirement.

As President Barack Obama has said many times and President George W. Bush said when he created the RFS, we must take bold actions to address climate change and achieve energy independence. Biodiesel is one important part of the solution. The administration should seize on its potential with stronger standards that reduce our dependence on oil, strengthen our energy security and stimulate economic growth.

We urge the Obama administration and the EPA to implement higher RFS targets for biomass diesel, taking full advantage of domestic biodiesel production capacity.

This story was originally published November 26, 2015 at 11:15 PM with the headline "Harry Simpson: To fight climate change, EPA should prioritize biodiesel."