EPA emissions rules could hinder ethanol

Des Moines Register
By PHILIP BRASHER • pbrasher@dmreg.com • September 19, 2010

Washington, D.C. - Biofuels producers don't like to think of themselves as a cause of global warming, but that's how they could be regulated under the Obama administration's regulations on greenhouse gases.

The regulations, due to take effect in January, would count as greenhouse gases the carbon dioxide that's released when corn is fermented into motor fuel or when corn stalks, straw and other sources of biomass are burned to make electricity.

That means a paperwork and financial burden for most of the state's 39 ethanol plants. The regulations won't require polluters to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but could in the future.

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