Outgoing US Agriculture Chief Criticizes EPA Report on Biofuels

(Bloomberg) -- US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in one his final acts, criticized a Biden administration assessment that the country’s key biofuel law likely has had a “modest but negative” impact on the environment.

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The US Department of Agriculture doesn’t concur with the Environmental Protection Agency’s report to Congress on biofuels and the environment, Vilsack said in a Jan. 17 letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson. “USDA believes that there are critical omissions in the document and overreach in the analyses presented,” he wrote.

In its study of the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires a certain amount of biofuels to be blended into the US transportation fuel supply, the EPA didn’t look at the law’s effect on greenhouse gases, Vilsack said. Officials from the EPA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment during Monday’s US holiday.

“Given the importance of biofuels to the rural economy, it is critical that the environmental effects of their production and use be characterized accurately,” wrote Vilsack, the second-longest serving US agriculture secretary.

The criticism from Vilsack, a longtime vocal advocate for crop-based fuels as agriculture chief in both the Biden and Obama administrations, comes as Donald Trump is set to be sworn in as president. While Trump calls himself a champion for American farmers, how he and the new Republican-led Congress will deal with existing policies aimed at boosting output of fuels like sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel isn’t clear.

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