Senate energy outlook hearing focuses on fossils first

Witnesses projected strong growth for renewable fuels use in both the power generation and transportation sectors over the next 20 years during a Senate energy committee held Jan. 31, but committee members, many of whom represent fossil fuel producing states, chose to focus nearly all of their attention on the potential to further exploit the domestic oil and gas industries.  

Howard Gruenspecht, acting administrator of the U.S. DOE’s Energy Information Administration, testified that while domestic crude oil production is expected to grow by more than 20 percent over the coming decade, biofuels production is also expected to grow steadily. His testimony highlighted an EIA reference case in which domestic oil production is expected to grow to more than 1 million barrels per day by 2020, but also predicts that biofuel use will increase to the equivalent of more than 1 million barrels per day by 2024. The combination will reduce the need for imported petroleum by more than 10 percent just in the next decade, according to the EIA projections. On a global scale, renewable energy is expected to be the fastest growing source of primary energy over the next 25 years, but fossil fuels will remain the dominant source of energy, he said. By 2035, the EIA expects renewables to comprise 15 percent of the world’s total energy share.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., was the only committee member to devote a notable amount of her allotted speaking time to the role of biofuels in the domestic energy outlook for the coming years. She questioned witnesses specifically on drop-in fuels and their potential role in the U.S. energy supply. Gruenspecht said that the EIA views the renewable fuel standard (RFS) as a challenging mandate and continues to be skeptical of the nation’s ability to produce 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuel in 2022 as called for in the RFS. “We’ve always been fairly skeptical that you could actually get there, and the passage of time has not ameliorated that skepticism,” he said, adding that while many believe cellulosic ethanol will be the primary type of fuel produced for the cellulosic biofuels category, EIA believes that drop-in diesel replacements will be more likely to fill the category.

Another witness, Richard Jones, deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency, agreed with Gruenspecht’s prediction and told committee members that “cellulosic biofuels are going to be a long time coming.” However, the IEA also predicts steady growth in terms of biofuels use, projecting a growth rate of more than 3 percent annually worldwide through 2035.