Algal Biomass Organization Praises Obama Biofuels Strategy

The Algal Biomass Organization (ABO) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the development of viable commercial markets for renewable and sustainable commodities derived from algae. Its membership is comprised of people, companies and organizations across the value chain.

08-02-10

The Algal Biomass Organization (ABO), the leading trade association for the industry, today praised President Obama for his strong support of the U.S. biofuels industry as outlined in his biofuels strategy released on February 3. Of most significance to the algae industry was the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) finding that algae-based biodiesel and algae-based renewable diesel reduce emissions by more than 50 percent compared to petroleum-based diesel. The EPA made this determination based on a methodology that includes an analysis of the full life cycle of algae-based fuels.

“Today’s ruling is a strong and welcome show of support by the Obama administration for the biofuels industry as a whole,” said Mary Rosenthal, Executive Director of the ABO. “But most important to our industry is the recognition by EPA that algae-based fuels reduce overall CO2 emissions on a life cycle basis. This supports what we’ve been saying all along.”

With the issuance of the RFS-2, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers and the industry itself can be more confident that algae-based fuels will be an important component of a national renewable fuels portfolio, which will help reduce our nation’s dependency on imported oil, decrease harmful CO2 emissions and increase economic opportunity for thousands of people across the country.

Released as part of the Final Rule on EPA’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS-2), the EPA has made a determination through a full life cycle analysis that algae-based biodiesel and renewable diesel meet or exceed the emissions threshold requiring a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas-forming emissions compared to petroleum diesel. This reduction in greenhouse gas emissions classifies algae-based biodiesel and renewable diesel as an advanced biofuel under the guidelines established by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The EPA’s overview of its lifecycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from algae-based biodiesel and other renewable fuels is available via the EPA’s website at  www.epa.gov/otaq/renewablefuels/420f10006.htm.

The revised RFS program will increase the required volumes of renewable fuel to 36 billion gallons by 2022 and is expected to displace approximately 13.6 billion gallons of petroleum-based gasoline and diesel fuel, decrease oil imports by $41.4 billion and take the equivalent of 27 million vehicles off the road.

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Category: Biomass, other than pellets, USA, Algae, Biodiesel