The State of Texas Screws With the Biodiesel Industry

Austin-American Statesman: Senators give biodiesel industry a push (ain't that the truth!)

Biodiesel manufacturers by the end of the year must convince the state's environmental agency that their product has tailpipe emissions in line with low emissions standards or possibly be forced to stop selling the renewable fuel in Texas.

This, only a few months after Austin was voted #1 in the country in terms of biodiesel (B20) retail availability.

Seeking to stave off a regulatory crisis in Texas' emerging biodiesel market, state senators on Wednesday urged industry representatives and the state's environmental commission to meet and forge a compromise.

Once - just once - I'd like to see an industry rep stand up and say, "Fuck you and your compromise. From today onwards, we will produce as we see fit. We will do this because it is our right and our judgment. We will do this because our responsibility is to produce what our customers seek, not what politicians and bureaucrats compel. We will do this because we want to show the whole world what is really going on here: the government threatening and ultimately using aggression against individuals who have not."

I'd buy a video iPod just to watch that news clip and the attending shouts of disgust and horror from the audience, "experts," and commissars.

One option, to force manufacturers to mix in an additive to reduce emissions, probably would raise prices.

Gawddammit, they're already high enough as it is! Last time I checked, it was hovering around three bucks a gallon. That's just expensive enough to keep me from using it, though I have in the past when regular diesel was upwards of $2.90 a gallon during last year's hurricane saga.

And yes, I am aware that "[g]overnment support is involved in making the price [of biodiesel] bearable." I'd rather have an entirely unsubsidized biodiesel market with high prices than a subsidized one with lower prices. Attendant to that is a biodiesel market that is also not subject to the whims of the state, which would help greatly to reduce prices.

At stake may be the future of biodiesel sales in Texas, which recently passed Iowa with the nation's highest production capacity, about 100 million gallons of biodiesel. Another 87 million gallons of capacity could come online next year.

"We're the nation's leader on this, and I hope there's going to be no problem going forward," said Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources.

There wouldn't be any problem if these assholes would just get out of the way of those trying to get their work done.

The crisis has had the peculiar effect of casting advocates of biodiesel, often touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to standard diesel, in opposition to the state's environmental commission.

It's only peculiar if you assume environmentalism as a primary and that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality justifiably exists.

I prefer biodiesel over dino-diesel because it is better for my engine. All other benefits are secondary, though I do like that compared to regular diesel it burns cleaner.

But the environmental issue in Texas hinges on an empirical question about a particular kind of emission called nitrogen oxide: namely, how much nitrogen oxide biodiesel, which is typically a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent standard diesel, emits compared with the state's diesel emissions standards.

Last November, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality decided that biodiesel emissions exceeded the limits for smog-producing nitrogen oxide under the state's low-emission diesel program.

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Leave it to the state to screw things up. It's been demanding the market respond to environmental concerns and then when it does, it starts throwing up roadblocks to progress.

Posted by Drizzten at October 12, 2006 12:29 PM