Biofuel Industry Development Initiative signed into law in Louisiana

Yesterday, Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law the Advanced Biofuel Industry Development Initiative, the most comprehensive and far-reaching state legislation in the nation enacted to develop a statewide advanced biofuel industry. Louisiana is the first state to enact alternative transportation fuel legislation that includes a variable blending pump pilot program and a hydrous ethanol pilot program.

The legislature found that the proper development of an advanced biofuel industry in Louisiana requires implementation of the following comprehensive “field-to-pump” strategy developed by Renergie, Inc.:

(1) Feedstock Other Than Corn
(a) derived solely from Louisiana harvested crops;
(b) capable of an annual yield of at least 600 gallons of ethanol per acre;
(c) requiring no more than one-half of the water required to grow corn;
(d) tolerant to high temperature and waterlogging;
(e) resistant to drought and saline-alkaline soils;
(f) capable of being grown in marginal soils, ranging from heavy clay to light sand;
(g) requiring no more than one-third of the nitrogen required to grow corn, thereby reducing the risk of
contamination of the waters of the state; and
(h) requiring no more than one-half of the energy necessary to convert corn into ethanol.

The legislature calls for a decentralized network of small biofuel manufacturing facilities each capable of producing 5 - 15 million gallons of biofuel per year. Variable blending pumps, directly installed and operated at local gas stations must offer the consumer a less expensive substitute for unleaded gasoline in the form of E10, E20, E30 and E85.

It is not entirely clear what crop this legislature was tailored for. Some believe it was tailored for sweet sorghum, considering that Renergie, Inc. was involved in developing the language. Sugarcane certainly should meet most if not all of the criteria listed above. Both are more energy efficient than corn, and neither has the same food-vs-fuel stigma that corn has.