Earlier today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the names of participants and the findings of the peer review process related to the EPA's controversial indirect land use models within the new Renewable Fuels Standard regulations.
"I am deeply discouraged by what seems to be yet another slant against ethanol from the EPA," said Thune. "Despite calls from Congress to release the controversial models that EPA used to calculate indirect land use changes before issuing the new Renewable Fuels Standard regulations, EPA issued the regulations and then subjected its models to a peer review process. Unbelievably, many of the EPA-selected participants in the peer review process are outspoken critics of American produced renewable fuel. This is a disturbing revelation of how the Obama Administration is allowing the EPA to put unproven environmental theory before America's energy security. If unchanged, continued reliance on this approach will severely jeopardize future growth in renewable fuel production in the United States."
Senator John Thune has introduced legislation (S.943) to strengthen the Renewable Fuels Standard and to stop EPA's attempts to use flawed indirect land use models to discredit the positive environmental impacts of ethanol.