Refiners Say Low-Carbon Laws Worse Than Cap-and-Trade

Bloomberg Businessweek
August 03, 2010, 6:18 PM EDT
By Simon Lomax and Mario Parker

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Plans to reduce the carbon content of U.S. transportation fuels are likely to boost oil imports from the Middle East and lead to more pollution from diesel-fueled tankers, according to a report commissioned by the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association.

A low-carbon standard is “even worse” than the “terrible” cap-and-trade legislation for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that recently collapsed in the U.S. Senate, said Charles Drevna, president of the refining industry group. The association estimated that plan would have cost the industry more than $20 billion a year.

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Can Carbon Be Cut Without Climate Legislation?

Time (EcoCentric Blog)
Posted by Bryan Walsh Friday, July 23, 2010 at 12:30 pm

Carbon cap-and-trade is dead—at least for this political lifetime. And while the circular firing squad among Democrats and greens has already begun, it's worth taking a deep breath and remembering that there are other tools that can be used to deal with climate change. As TIME's Joe Klein points out, the Supreme Court ruled more than three years ago that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. The EPA has already begun to effectively regulate carbon emissions from automobiles with its tougher fuel efficiency standards, but it's not yet clear how the agency might work to regulate emissions from electric utilities or other sectors.

As a new report from the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows, regulations could have a widely varying effect on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions over the coming two decades, depending on how aggressive the government wants to be—but even the tightest rules would be unlikely to reduce emissions enough to avoid dangerous climate change. The WRI authors divide potential regulatory approaches into three self-explanatory categories—"Lackluster," "Middle-of-the-Road," and "Go-Getter"—and looked at the potential for both state and federal action. (The reports notes that 25 states have already taken action on greenhouse gas emissions on their own.)

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Capturing Carbon

Ethanol Producer Magazine
June 2010
By Luke Geiver

The real issue with CO2 exists in policy debate, but that hasn’t stopped some ethanol plants from capturing and selling the greenhouse gas.

Talk of CO2 in the ethanol industry garners mainly just that, talk. From the reporting requirements, cap and trade, and tailoring issues addressed in never-ending reports issued about the gas, the answer on CO2 policy always seems to be just around the corner, another month or two away. Some ethanol producers, however, don’t seem to be waiting, and have already taken CO2 action.

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Carbon mitigation, carbon market opportunities for biofuels

Biofuels Digest
April 27, 2010 Jim Lane

In Washington at the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, Rick Gilmore, President/CEO of The GIC Group discussed possible carbon mitigation strategies which the biofuel industry could pursue as U.S. regulations and mandates come online. Of key interest to industry players, Gilmore highlighted the potential revenue gains which biofuels stand to receive through carbon markets. “All of these new biofuel production technologies, improved feedstocks, yield increases- these are efficiency gains; and our GIC-ACI (Ag Carbon Index) measures that increased value and maximizes that value over time,” said Gilmore. The GIC-ACI is a first mover product that responds to a missing link in the low-carbon economy and will facilitate the biofuel industry in meeting marketplace challenges. According to Gilmore, GIC’s index provides all players in the biofuel and agribusiness sector a benchmark and a hedging vehicle for carbon offset opportunities worldwide.

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Cap And Trade: Controversy With Potential Revenue

CattleNetwork.com
04/21/2010 10:13AM

For all practical purposes, every Cornbelt farmer is in the middle of the great debate about energy. If you are growing corn and/or soybeans, your commodities are priced depending on ethanol and biodiesel demand. If you are using fertilizer, pesticides, and other chemicals made from petrochemicals, you are a consumer. If you are just fueling up to head to the field, the parts store, or sending your family to school, you are participating in the bioenergy market. You really can’t escape. And that is why familiarity with the biofuels market, cap and trade, and US energy policy is important to your economic welfare.

You probably are aware that the controversial Cap and Trade legislation passed the US House with a slim margin, but consideration was delayed in the Senate until after healthcare issues were resolved. Every economist and policy specialist will tell you that Cap and Trade will cause energy prices to rise, which includes your diesel fuel bill, but that farmers who want to participate will be able to financially benefit. That is the basis for a new report from 9 economists featured in the April Edition of Policy Issues published by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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Ag carbon benefit may be indirect

Southwest Farm Press
Apr 12, 2010 10:01 AM, By Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff

Carbon trading is not likely to help farmers’ bottom lines significantly, according to Michael Farmer, Texas Tech associate professor, but agriculture may benefit indirectly from carbon regulation through value added from biofuels.

Farmer, speaking at a Texas Alliance for Water Conservation field day in Muncy, Texas, said large corporations such as Wal-Mart and General Electric could take advantage of cap and trade policies “to improve their carbon footprints.”

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The Details of the Energy & Climate Legislation in D.C.

The Huffington Post
Posted: March 18, 2010 03:38 PM

"The cap-and-trade bills in the House and Senate are dead." Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) reflected the reality that Congress now faces as it negotiates a comprehensive climate and energy package that might get voted on before this November's congressional elections. One alternative to cap-and-trade has been a cap-and-dividend bill sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). The leading solution, though, appears to be coming from a bipartisan group of senators led by John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut), and Graham that would put a price on carbon emissions that targets only the electric utility, transportation, and industrial sectors of the economy.

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Cap-and-trade means plant-a-tree for U.S. farms

Reuters
Charles Abbott
Thu Dec 3, 2009 6:48pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lion's share of revenue earned by U.S. farmers for controlling greenhouse gases under a House-passed climate bill would be paid for growing trees, analysts told an Agriculture subcommittee on Thursday.

Green Business
"The primary source of agricultural offsets would be carbon sequestration through afforestation of crop and pastureland," said Joe Glauber, Agriculture Department chief economist.

Some 85 percent of revenue from agricultural offsets from 2015-2050 would arise from creation of woodlands, said Glauber. The Congressional Budget Office estimated forestry would account for 90 percent of agricultural offsets in 2030.

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25x'25: University of Tennessee Study Analyzes Impact of Climate Change Legislation on U.S. Agriculture and Bioenergy Feedstock Production

GrainNet.com
Date Posted: November 11, 2009

Kansas City, MO—Net returns for virtually all major crops are positive under a properly constructed cap-and-trade program, according to a University of Tennessee study released today by 25x'25.

However, the study goes on to show that if carbon emissions are regulated by EPA as prescribed under a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, net farm income is projected to fall below baseline projections.

The Analysis of the Implications of Climate Change and Energy Legislation to the Agricultural Sector, the long-awaited and comprehensive assessment by the University of Tennessee's Bio-Based Energy Analysis Group, says that an operationally efficient cap-and-trade program that allows multiple offsets, including those for bioenergy crop production, while restricting the removal of crop residues to acceptable, environmentally beneficial levels, offers positive net returns for eight of the nine major crops analyzed.

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25X'25 shows ag could benefit from cap-and-trade, but …

Drovers
By Drovers news source Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Net returns for virtually all major crops are positive under a properly constructed cap-and-trade program, according to a University of Tennessee study released today by 25x”25. However, the study goes on to show that if carbon emissions are regulated by EPA as prescribed under a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, net farm income is projected to fall below baseline projections.

The Analysis of the Implications of Climate Change and Energy Legislation to the Agricultural Sector, the long-awaited and comprehensive assessment by the University of Tennessee’s Bio-Based Energy Analysis Group, says that an operationally efficient cap-and-trade program that allows multiple offsets, including those for bioenergy crop production, while restricting the removal of crop residues to acceptable, environmentally beneficial levels, offers positive net returns for eight of the nine major crops analyzed.

Furthermore, at a meaningful but moderate carbon price of up to $27 per metric ton of carbon dioxide (MtCO2e) – a price level projected by EPA – no cropland is expected to be converted to forests. In fact, no major shifts in commodity cropland use are expected under a properly constructed cap-and-trade system.

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Ag Secretary Vilsack Discusses Climate Legislation Before Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

Grainnet.com
Date Posted: July 7, 2009

Washington, DC—U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack testified July 7 to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the role that rural America can play in addressing climate change.

Secretary Vilsack discussed the importance of engaging farmers and ranchers in crafting the solution to this critical issue, and highlighted many potential economic benefits to rural communities in a cap and trade program.

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Biofuel Showdown: Should Domestic Ethanol Producers Pay for Deforestation Abroad?

Scientific American
June 25, 2009

By Brendan Borrell

The biofuel lobby will win big by delaying rules on "indirect land-use change" for six years, but the National Academy of Sciences may now study the issue

After a fierce battle over agricultural incentives in a landmark climate bill, Congress plans to ask the National Academy of Sciences to study how biofuel production in the Midwest can shift food production abroad, stimulating a wave of deforestation.
Tomorrow's expected vote in the House of Representatives on the climate bill would move the nation a step closer to a cap-and-trade system that would limit greenhouse gas emissions. But the bill's sponsors have made significant concessions to Agriculture Committee Chairman Colin Peterson (D–Minn.), who threatened to torpedo the legislation as it was written. President Obama is pressing for its passage, which would still have to work its way through the Senate in July to become law.

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BIOMASS examines carbon cap and trade

Biomass Magazine May 2009
By By Anna Austin
Web news posted May 1, 2009, at 7:38 a.m.

Issues surrounding biomass-related greenhouse gas reduction opportunities and cap and trade systems were the topic of discussion during the second general session at the 2009 BIOMASS Conference & Expo in Portland, Ore.

The session, which investigated possible issues surrounding carbon capture and trade in the U.S., included speakers Rena Gelb, vice president of Carbon Credit Capital; Bill Holmes, Stoel Rives LLP partner; and Peter Weisberg, offset project analyst of Onsite Power Systems.

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GIC Group: With Cap and Trade, Biofuels Would Offer Cost-Competetive Business Model to Petroleum Fuels

Grainnet.com
Date Posted: April 23, 2009

At the Advanced Biofuels Development Summit, Rick Gilmore, President of GIC Group indicated that with the prospect of cap and trade, biofuels offer a cost-competitive business model to petroleum based fuels.

He also pointed out that the conventional wisdom on ethanol prices is that margins are lock-step in line with oil prices.

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