Grain sorghum supporters pleased with EPA progress

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has closed public comment on the approval of grain sorghum as an advanced biofuel under the renewable Fuels Standard.

The period for comments has been open for over a month and been championed by sorghum producers country-wide, with National Farmer’s Union president Roger Johnson supportive from the beginning.

Johnson was quoted as saying: “US farmers can have a tremendous positive impact on the environment by producing advanced biofuel from grain sorghum. EPA’s analysis indicates that utilising different process energy technology options reduces lifecycle greenhouse gas impacts of ethanol produced from grain sorghum by 53% compared to the petroleum baseline."

The National Grain Sorghum Producers, which said that the original EPA notice of data availability was significant in allowing the domestic production of advanced biofuels from sorghum as envisioned in the 2007 Energy Bill, was also reported to be in good cheer.

The 2007 Bill requires the production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022 from both conventional and advanced sources of biofuel.