Sustainable Biofuel Certification Costs and Benefits
ID: 3670

Abstract: Sustainable biofuels initiatives are proliferating globally, but which ones can really deliver supply chain assurance? What are their costs and benefits? This panel will examine the landscape of options and programs, what they offer and what they do not. It will assess how they fit in the voluntary market and the emerging regulatory policy environment of the United States, the European Union and other markets. Finally, it will assess the utility of sustainable biofuel certification in the context of regulation - and incentives - to combat climate change.





Jeffrey Frost

The U.S. Government interagency group, the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BR&Di), has convened a sustainability working group called the Sustainability Interagency Working Group (S-IWG). The group includes senior staffers from multiple agencies including DOE, EPA, USDA, NSF, USGS, DOC/NOAA, OMB, and others. In late 2008, S-IWG released a draft of science-based criteria and indicators to assess sustainable production of biofuels across the biofuels supply chains. They developed a list of 75 indicators under subheadings for Environment, Economics, Social, and Energy.



AgRefresh, beginning late 2008, developed metrics based upon these criteria and indications to assess the impacts of funding mandated under the biofuels energy subtitles of the 2008 Farm Bill (Food Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008). AgRefresh will report on the nature of the new United States government sustainability indicators identified by S-IWG. We will also report on the real-world experience of applying these standards to billions of dollars of mandated biofuels expenditures from the 2008 Farm Bill.



Note: The topic “sustainability metrics in practice” - which includes land use change impacts, direct and indirect, would make a great panel. If BIO likes the idea, I would be pleased to take two weeks more to talk to my peers and identify two or three other panelists. I would moderate and deliver the overview. One person would speak on the metrics for the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, another on the metrics from the internationally oriented Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) associated with the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP), another could speak to the metrics emerging for the United States Renewable Fuels Standard, and I would speak, per above, about S-IWG.









Moderator: Jane Earley, Earley & White Consulting Group, LLC (United States)

Presenter 1: Overview of Biofuel Sustainability Initiatives
Jane Earley, Earley & White Consulting Group, LLC, (United States)  [Confirmed]

Presenter 2: United States Government Sustainability Interagency Working Group Metrics 
Jeffrey Frost, AgRefresh, (United States)  [Confirmed]

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Panel Organizer:
Jane Earley, Earley & White Consulting Group, LLC, (United States)

Why should your submission should be selected for this year’s program?
Sustainable biofuel certification is new - but no one has yet given the industry a guide to the programs and their utility.