Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chairman John Barrasso is asking the EPA administrator to conduct studies on whether the Renewable Fuel Standard is harming the environment. Renewable Fuels Association Senior Vice President Geoff Cooper welcomes that move. He’s confident the results will show ethanol’s benefits to the environment under the RFS. Cooper says the original rule that created the RFS calls for those studies and EPA has been lax in getting those done.

He says several university, industry and third-party studies have proven the environmental benefits of ethanol.

Cooper says analyses should be done not just on ethanol under the RFS, but also the environmental impacts caused by petroleum fuels.

Cooper adds that USDA data shows ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 43-percent compared to gasoline.