Massachusetts bans non-waste biodiesel
The state of Massachusetts has shocked producers of second- and third-generation biodiesel produced from non-food feedstocks by banning their product from being counted as biodiesel when the state introduces its biodiesel mandate in 2011.
Massachusetts is to become one of the first US states to introduce a biodiesel mandate. From 1 July 2011, producers of petroleum diesel will be legally compelled to add either 2% or 3% biodiesel to their product, a figure to be decided by the end of 2010. Every gallon of biodiesel added to petroleum diesel in the 12 months preceding this can be deducted from the required amount added after this date.
But in a highly unexpected decision, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) has ruled that only biodiesel produced from waste streams can count towards this obligation. This excludes not only first-generation biodiesel made from soyabeans and other food crops, which has created controversy, but also biodiesel made from non-food crops such as jatropha, camelina and algae.
The biodiesel mandate passed by Massachusetts state legislature requires that all biodiesel be subject to a lifecycle analysis to certify that its total emissions are at least 50% below those of fossil diesel. DOER believes the science of lifecycle analysis is, as yet, insufficiently developed to allow carbon reductions to be calculated for crop growth.
The mandate does, however, pledge that ‘DOER and [Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection] will continue to track and engage with federal and California efforts to establish analytical methodologies and protocols for evaluating non-waste feedstock biofuels, and will expeditiously seek to adopt such protocols, as they become available, for the purpose of the Massachusetts Biofuels Mandate.’
Massachusetts is to become one of the first US states to introduce a biodiesel mandate. From 1 July 2011, producers of petroleum diesel will be legally compelled to add either 2% or 3% biodiesel to their product, a figure to be decided by the end of 2010. Every gallon of biodiesel added to petroleum diesel in the 12 months preceding this can be deducted from the required amount added after this date.
But in a highly unexpected decision, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) has ruled that only biodiesel produced from waste streams can count towards this obligation. This excludes not only first-generation biodiesel made from soyabeans and other food crops, which has created controversy, but also biodiesel made from non-food crops such as jatropha, camelina and algae.
The biodiesel mandate passed by Massachusetts state legislature requires that all biodiesel be subject to a lifecycle analysis to certify that its total emissions are at least 50% below those of fossil diesel. DOER believes the science of lifecycle analysis is, as yet, insufficiently developed to allow carbon reductions to be calculated for crop growth.
The mandate does, however, pledge that ‘DOER and [Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection] will continue to track and engage with federal and California efforts to establish analytical methodologies and protocols for evaluating non-waste feedstock biofuels, and will expeditiously seek to adopt such protocols, as they become available, for the purpose of the Massachusetts Biofuels Mandate.’
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