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Metrics in Congress: Useful Metrics for Evaluating Biofuels Legislation

Metrics in Congress: Useful Metrics for Evaluating Biofuels Legislation. Michaelangelo Tabone 2008 AIChE WISE Intern August 6 th , 2008. Recent Biofuels Legislation. The Renewable Fuel Standard of 2007 Mandates significant increases in production of biofuels

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Metrics in Congress: Useful Metrics for Evaluating Biofuels Legislation

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  1. Metrics in Congress:Useful Metrics for Evaluating Biofuels Legislation Michaelangelo Tabone 2008 AIChE WISE Intern August 6th, 2008

  2. Recent Biofuels Legislation • The Renewable Fuel Standard of 2007 • Mandates significant increases in production of biofuels • Caused significant investment in industry

  3. Purposes of This Study Outline metrics used in congressional proceedings regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard Point out significant conflicts and criticisms Recommend a more effective standard system for presenting metrics to congress

  4. Role of Metrics • Assess impacts of legislation • Environmental Impacts • Economic Impacts • Cultural and Security Impacts • Survey of metrics used in creation of 2007 RFS • Completed for this study

  5. Land Use Change Emissions Environmental Metrics Plant Growth Sequestration Farming Emissions Fuel Use Emissions • Greenhouse Gases • Most controversial • Life Cycle Analyses • Add emissions in stages • Combustion and uptake offset • Land Use Change • Forest land contains carbon • Lost to atmosphere during conversion to crops Transportation Refining Emissions Net Greenhouse Gas Emissions for fuel Transportation Emmisions Associated withby-products Transportation

  6. Land-Use Change in various models

  7. Land-Use Change in various models

  8. Non-Climate Related Impacts • Many environmental impacts were not presented • Outlined by the Friends of the Earth • Fertilizer Use/Runoff • Biodiversity Loss • Deforestation • Genetic Modification • Water Use • Erosion • Pesticide Use • SO2, NOX, CO and other air pollutants • Some effects are tracked by the GREET and LEM models

  9. Economic Metrics • Ethanol’s viability in current markets • Mainly through statistics: Renewable Fuels Association

  10. Economic Impact on Food Market Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing on Fuel Production and Food Prices • Presented values appeared to conflict at first • Actually are quite close considering different calculaiton

  11. Cultural and Security Impacts • Rural Economic Impact • Primarily anecdotal evidence • Farmers begin to re-grow on fallow land • Refineries create jobs in rural areas • Security Impacts • Anecdotal evidence from General Charles F. Wald • Eventually need to secure Caspian Oil Fields • Most likely by military action • Large area for more metrics to be provided!

  12. Need for Transparency • Conflicting results cause belief of bias • Metrics from interest groups are discarded • Often these metrics agree in many areas • Represent different political assertions • Increased Transparency • Visible assumptions in conflicting studies • More effective lobbying for specific areas of legislation • Must be simple and quick to understand • Overcomplicated transparency is ineffective

  13. Breakup of Metrics • Amount of food spending towards specific sectors

  14. Breakup of Metrics • Amount of food spending towards specific sectors • Concise • Transparent • Easily Adjusted • Percentages are universally informative

  15. Breakup of Metrics • Comparison of greenhouse gasses in GREET and Searchinger analyses Combustion GasolineBaseline Greet Gasoline Uptake Farm Ref. Combust. 20% Reduction GREETCorn-Ethanol Uptake Farm Ref. Combust. Land-Use Change 20% Reduction 96% Increase Searchinger Corn-Ethanol Negative Emissions Positive Emissions

  16. Recommended Metric System • Future considerations for greenhouse gasses • National Legislation • Carbon cap and trade system • International Agreements • U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen • Life-Cycle Analyses: Greenhouse Gas Emissions • Break up metric as Domestic or International emissions • Break up metric by sector Domestic Emissions% International Emissions% Logging% Farming% Refining% Blending Transportation% Combustion% Total Emissions Resulting From Renewable Fuel

  17. Recommended Metric System • Non-Climate Environmental Impacts • Assess the cumulative impacts of the Renewable Fuels Standard of 2007 • Asses the ability for current regulations to mitigate impacts

  18. Recommended Metric System: Economic Metrics • Food versus Fuel • Estimate effect on both US and International Food prices • Report metrics assessing effect on household spending (International and Domestic) • Infrastructure Changes • Present the limits imposed by obstacles • Present the effects of proposed government incentives.

  19. Recommended Metric System Cultural and Security Metrics • Make anecdotal evidence a direct effect of policy • What military action can be prevented by policy? • What geographic areas will benefit from advanced biofuels? • How will increased biofuel production affect American finances.

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