August 10, 2009
By Timothy Gardner, New York
Makers of biofuels and plastics and chemicals made from crops want U.S.
senators to change the climate bill to give them free pollution permits that
would be needed to emit greenhouse gases under the legislation.
Companies that make the alternative motor
fuel ethanol and plastics from renewable biomass, rather than fossil fuels,
have visited Senate offices to urge that 1 percent to 5 percent of the
emissions permits in a cap and trade program outlined in the bill be given to
the businesses from 2012 to 2050.
Such credits were not included for those
industries in the House of Representatives version of the bill passed in June. Democratic
leaders hope the full Senate will vote on the legislation in October.
The biofuels industry, most of which has
the capability to also make bio-plastics and chemicals similar to
petroleum-based chemicals, is far smaller than the oil refining industry, which
would get 2 percent of the permits to pollute under the bill.
But Brent Erickson, an executive vice
president at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, said makers of biofuels
and plastics made from plants should get a share of the permits because their
products are renewable.
"No offense to refiners, but they're
taking carbon that's been buried in the ground for millions of years and
releasing it into the atmosphere," he said. "And we're taking carbon
that's in the atmosphere and recycling it through plants, and it ought to be
treated differently."
A study in Yale University's Journal of
Industrial Ecology published this year found that ethanol made from corn had
lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions about 50 percent lower than gasoline. Ethanol
producers say cellulosic ethanol, a second generation fuel made from non-food
crops that's not available yet in commercial amounts, is even cleaner.
Erickson said such incentives in the
climate bill could benefit companies such as Archer Daniels Midland Co, DuPont
Co, Dow Chemical Co and Metabolix Inc.
BIO also hopes companies that are looking
to make fuels and products from algae will get incentives under the climate
bill. No company makes commercial amounts of fuel from algae yet, but interest
in the industry has grown over the last two or three years.
Exxon Mobil Corp, for instance, said last
month it will invest $600 million over the next five to six years on trying to
develop biofuel from algae.
The bill passed by the House would give
about 85 percent of the credits away in the first years of a cap and trade
program on greenhouse gas emissions and auction about 15 percent of them.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5795CL20090810