Ag Productivity Makes RFS Attainable
Posted: July 10, 2008
A Senate panel heard testimony Thursday that advances in agricultural productivity make the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard an attainable goal.
DuPont Vice President for Applied BioSciences Technology John Pierce told the Senate Environment and Public Works clean air subcommittee that American agriculture has outpaced the oil industry in productivity.
“When our Pioneer subsidiary began operations in 1926, corn yields were about 27 bushels per acre and petroleum was relatively cheap – you could buy 3.5 pounds of petroleum for the cost of one pound of corn,” Pierce’s testimony reads. “Today, corn yields in the US average about 150 bushels per acre. Corn, at $7 per bushel, is 3.5 times cheaper than petroleum, instead of being 3.5 times more expensive as it was in 1926 – a remarkable testament to agricultural productivity.”
Pierce says the expanded RFS, which increases the amount of renewable fuels required up to 36 billion gallons by 2022 - 16 billion of that from biomass - is attainable both in terms of corn ethanol and cellulosic. “In fact, there are multiple technology developers intending to produce cellulosic ethanol in pilot or demonstration quantities from a range of feedstocks over the next 24 months. The economics and carbon performance of grain ethanol continues to improve as well, as does agricultural productivity and sustainability in the US. These trends suggest that while the RFS targets are aggressive, as they should be, they are not out of reach.”
Read Pierce’s full testimony here.