生質燃料和農業團體，6月9號在美國首府舉行的公開聽證會中，反對環保署（EPA）「全國再生燃料標準」（RFS）修訂案。
為落實2007年「能源自主與安全法案」而修訂的條例，稱為RFS-2，適用於所有國內、外再生燃料生產和進口商。
此擧將為纖維素生質燃料、生質柴油、先進的生質燃料、年度再生燃料運輸用途總量，制定新的額度標準。
修訂的條款還包括賦予再生燃料、生產原料不同的定義和標準，其中含再生燃料溫室氣體排放值。
此外，條規要求環保署計算再生燃料排放量時，把間接溫室氣體排放量一併納入考慮。也就是所謂的「土地用途變更的間接排放，」原本這些溫室氣體應被森林或其他陸地植被吸收，但卻遭清除轉而發展生質燃料。
美國乙醇貿協，再生燃料協會董事長兼執行長迪寧（Dinneen）說：「美國生產生質燃料，對其他國家土地用途的決定，具有重大影響力的説法根本沒有佐證。而且其中充滿太多的"不確定因素"，更何況目前也沒有一個能分析其間接效應、具公信力的方法。」
全國玉米種植者協會，乙醇委員會主席拉赫（Ruh）說環保署「證實了我們業界向來強調，乙醇比汽油溫室氣體排放量顯著降低的事實，協會爲此感到高興。」
他繼續道，「但環保署目前的提案卻引發玉米農一陣"大恐慌"。因為這些繁瑣和不必要的條例，可能會造成農業生產者沉重的負擔。」
RFS-2首次規定美國的再生柴油，必須含有再生燃料成分，並列出從2009年使用生質柴油的5億加侖，增加到2012年的10億加侖時間表。
為達標準，再生燃料必須比所取代的傳統柴油燃料，減少溫室氣體排放量達50%。另外，環保署長有權把溫室氣體排放量目標降低到40%。
國家貿協，國家生物柴油局代表非洛奇（Feraci）說：「我們了解環保署應法令要求，計算再生燃料廢氣排放量時，必須把重大間接排放量納入考慮。但這並不意味著環保署可以引用錯誤的數據，並捏造不現實的情境，來懲罰美國與南美洲土地使用決定，完全無關的生質柴油業。」
他強調說：「毫無疑問地，環保署提出的法規就是如此。從國內生產植物油中提煉的生質柴油，無法通過生質柴油修訂標準的門檻，也無法滿足條例設定數量的目標。」
Biofuel and farm groups objected to the U.S. EPA's revisions to the National Renewable Fuel Standard today at a public hearing in Washington.
The proposed revisions to the National Renewable Fuel Standard program, commonly called RFS-2, are required by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. They will apply to domestic and foreign producers and importers of renewable fuels.
The revisions establish new volume standards for cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel that must be used in transportation fuel each year.
The revised requirements also include new definitions and criteria for both renewable fuels and the feedstocks used to produce them, including new greenhouse gas emission thresholds for renewable fuels.
And the law requires the EPA to consider indirect greenhouse gas emissions when calculating a renewable fuel's emission profile. Called emissions from indirect land use change, these are greenhouse gases that would have been absorbed by forests or other vegetation on lands that are cleared to grow biofuel crops.
Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, the trade association of the U.S. ethanol industry, said, "There is simply no evidence that biofuel production in the U.S. has significant influence over land use decisions in other countries. And there is too much "uncertainty" and no widely accepted methodology for analyzing indirect effects."
National Corn Growers Association Ethanol Committee Chairman Steve Ruh said his organization is pleased that the EPA has "validated what our industry has long known ?that when in direct comparison to gasoline, ethanol significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions."
But EPA's current proposal has caused "great apprehension" among corn growers, said Ruh, because of its "potential to place onerous and unnecessary regulations on agriculture producers."
RFS-2 for the first time requires a renewable component in U.S. diesel fuel, and provides a schedule for the use of biomass-based diesel that increases from 500 million gallons in 2009 to one billion gallons in 2012.
To qualify for the program, renewable fuel must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent compared to the conventional diesel fuel it is replacing, and the EPA Administrator has the authority to reduce the greenhouse gas emission target to 40 percent.
Manning Feraci of the National Biodiesel Board, the national trade association for the industry, said "We recognize that statute requires the EPA to consider significant indirect emissions when calculating a renewable fuel's emission profile," he said. "This does not require the EPA to rely on faulty data and to fabricate unrealistic scenarios that punish the U.S. biodiesel industry for wholly unrelated land use decisions in South America."
"Make no doubt about it," said Feraci, "this is what the EPA's proposed rule does. Biodiesel produced from domestically produced vegetable oils are disqualified from the Biomass-based Diesel program, making it all but impossible to meet the volume goals established by statute."
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