EPA hasn’t told the whole story of the benefits of biofuels

America’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has been in place for more than a decade, undeniably improving the nation’s energy security and environmental health by diversifying our energy choices. It also has boosted rural economies by expanding markets for agriculture — something that farmers need now more than ever. Growing America’s agricultural and energy production brings additional benefits for global food security. Too often, those benefits are overlooked or misunderstood. A recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report released to Congress on the environmental and resource conservation impacts of biofuel production deliberately misses the mark because of what it excludes. The EPA authors note that their report excludes any consideration of biofuels’ reductions of greenhouse gas emissions or the additional environmental benefits of displacing fossil fuels. How can that be excluded if the report is about environmental and resource conservation impacts of biofuels? In fact, those are major advantages of the biofuels industry and the primary measures of environmental success for the RFS. The EPA continues to recognize those same benefits in its other publications.