Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a plan to significantly reduce renewable fuel over the next two years. Before it finalizes its, however, the organization will conduct a public hearing to give energy experts the chance to testify and influence the final policy.
Over 250 people have signed up to give testimony at the Jack Reardon Center, enough that the EPA has decided to break the hearing down into two separate panels.
Chris Grundler, the EPA's director of transportation and air quality, believes that unless the organization's original standards are reduced, they'd be impossible to meet.
"There would be widespread noncompliance, and the EPA is not in the habit of putting out standards we don't think are achievable," he said.
One of the focuses of the panel will specifically be on ethanol. When the renewable fuels law was passed in 2007, the EPA pushed for an increase in the amount of biofuels blended into gasoline.
This has led to its own problems however, as the use of ethanol is gasoline drove food prices up, and, as some environmental groups have argued, added to global warming by forcing extra land to be turned into corn farms.
Grundler went on to add that while "we are not growing them as fast or as large as Congress anticipated, but they are still growing, just at a different pace than what was expected in 2007."
Because of how rapidly they can change, staying on top of and following EPA regulations be difficult and time consuming. Hiring environmental consultants help you better understand the latest trends and regulations, as well as find quick and cost effective ways to adjust your business to meet them.