Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor submitted the following letter to the editor in response to an opinion piece in the LA Times by Carolyn Raffensperger and Sheri Deal-Tyne on carbon capture:
To the editor of the LA Times:
I was disappointed to read the guest column attacking low-carbon bioethanol and carbon capture. The evidence cited came from a report that was widely debunked by the nation’s top climate modelers, including Argonne National Lab. In reality, farm-based renewables are a potent weapon against climate change. Data from the California Air Resources Board show that biofuels have generated the majority of all LCFS carbon reductions. And just last month, the University of California-Riverside published another report illustrating how bioethanol cuts particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and smog-forming pollutants linked to health threats. Moreover, bioethanol plants have a long, effective history of carbon capture – in fact, chances are good that the food-grade CO2 in your soda was captured in a bioethanol tank. With sequestration, we can further reduce bioethanol’s lifecycle emissions, already 46 percent lower than gasoline. Regulators would be foolish to ignore California’s best options for decarbonizing liquid fuels that will be on the road for decades to come.
Emily Skor
CEO
Growth Energy
American Ethanol Supporters