Other than admitting a wince, I'll refrain from commenting on your view of the Affordable Care Act while heartily seconding your call to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard in the editorial entitled "RFS and health care" (OGJ, Nov. 4, 2013, p. 32). Environmental concerns amplify the need for Congress to greatly scale back, if not fully rescind, this ill-considered mandate.
The slick branding of "renewable" greenwashes the fact that the RFS provides no measurable CO2 reduction and, given the uncertainties involved may well be making matters worse. The "biofuels recycle carbon" notion at the heart of the RFS lifecycle requirements and California's similarly ill-grounded Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) is simplistic and flawed. It is indeed an example of how something doesn't become true just because politicians say so.
As the country begins to tackle the climate issue, it must approach the challenge in a rational, scientifically sound manner. Scrapping the RFS and going back to the drawing boards on fuels and carbon is a good place to start.
John M. DeCicco, PhD
University of Michigan
Energy Institute and School of
Natural Resources and Environment
Ann Arbor, Mich.
