BLOGS / ILUC

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that the biomass-based diesel volume requirement under the RFS2 will be 1.28 billion gallons in 2013

Reassessment of several major studies of potential biomass availability shows that the higher estimates in the literature are based on over-optimistic and questionable assumptions, and that 100 EJ of primary energy is a more realistic ceiling on the 2050 potential.

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldinahas examined bioenergy potential in Germany, concluding that resources are limited and that there is substantial risk of causing ecological damage if they are over-exploited.

USDA expects climate change to reduce corn yields - mitigation strategies could protect yields, but at the risk of other environmental consequences.

The U.S. EPA has issued a Notice of Data Availability (NODA) on grain sorghum as a bioethanol feedstock under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) program. The NODA was published in the federal register on June 12. EPA’s lifecycle GHG analysis shows that bioethanol made from sorghum grain would meet the 20% threshold required by the Energy Independence and Security Act for conventional renewable fuel. When sorghum ethanol is produced at plants powered by biogas and combined heat and power technology, it could meet the 50% threshold for advanced renewable fuel.

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) argues that enhancing indigenous land rights could deliver co-benefits in reduced deforestation