California may not consider corn ethanol up to state's new, low-carbon fuel standard

"California regulators, trying to assess the true environmental cost of corn ethanol, are poised to declare that the biofuel cannot help the state reduce global warming," reports Matthew Cimitile of The Daily Climate. "As they see it, corn is no better – and might be worse – than petroleum when total greenhouse gas emissions are considered."

As California moves forward with its low-carbon fuel standard, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gasses from transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020, the state is looking at the overall impact of using corn ethanol. "If increased production of corn-based ethanol in the U.S. raises corn prices and accelerates the conversion of rainforests and conservation lands to farmland worldwide," Cimitile writes, "greenhouse emissions and loss of the carbon sink associated with such deforestation and disruption must be counted towards the biofuel’s total emissions."

California is looking at the use of cleaner energy sources such as electricity, hydrogen and cellulosic ethhanol. "But federal policy is moving in an opposite direction," adds Cimitile. "Pushed by industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering upping the percentage of ethanol in the nation’s gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent." (Read more) EPA is also considerinhg whether corn ethanol meets the Renewable Fuels Standard because of the forest-to-farm conversion issue.