House panel: EPA Can Gauge Ethanol Impact Abroad
Posted on June 25, 2009
By a one-vote margin, a U.S. House committee decided not to intervene in federal regulations that could hold U.S. ethanol makers responsible for greenhouse gases from crops overseas.
The Appropriations Committee defeated, 29-30, an amendment to bar the Environmental Protection Agency from using so-called indirect land-use change when measuring greenhouse gases from biofuels. It voted later to ask the Agriculture Department to study the question.
“There is a huge negative effect here,” said Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri Republican, who said an unfair EPA rule “could stop U.S. ethanol production in its tracks.”
Norm Dicks, Washington state Democrat, said it was logical that food production must expand elsewhere if larger amounts of U.S. crops are used in biofuels, so it is appropriate for EPA to take the changes into account.
» Filed Under Ethanol
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