Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The Minnesota Ethanol Program encouraged growth in the state's ethanol
industry, primarily through the use of producer incentives and mandated ethanol
blends. In particular, state legislation passed in 1980 provided a tax credit for
gasoline that was blended with 10-percent ethanol, and in 1986, the state set up a
producer payment incentive that paid ethanol producers 20 cents per gallon for a
10-year period. Legislation enacted in 1992 required that all gasoline offered for
sale in the state be blended with 7.7 percent ethanol beginning in 1997. This
provision was amended in 2003 to require blends to contain at least 10 percent
ethanol. In 1995, Minnesota also established a statutory goal to develop over 200
million gallons of ethanol production. The tax credits were eliminated in 1997,
and the producer incentive payments were phased out beginning in the late
1990s.[40] In 2004, Minnesota enacted legislation doubling the requirement to 20
percent by 2013.
Currently, nearly all gasoline in Minnesota is blended with 10-percent
ethanol, representing over $100 million in annual savings on oil imports. Ethanol
production has expanded from 1.5 million gallons in 1987 to a current capacity of
over 500 million gallons. Corn prices have also doubled to 30 cents a bushel, and
the Twin Cities area is in compliance with EPA air quality standards, according to
Minnesota officials. Minnesota is the nation's leader in the use of renewable fuels,
with the highest renewable fuel use per capita in the nation. It is home to 32
percent of the nation's E85 stations.
Texas' Renewable Portfolio Standards
To reduce a growing dependency on imported fossil fuels, make better use of
the region's natural renewable resources, and improve air quality profiles, Texas
enacted legislation in 2005 that extended its 1999 RPS to require the installation
of 5,000 megawatts of new renewable capacity, or about 5 percent of the state's
electricity demand, by 2015. Texas has already tripled its use of renewable energy
in the 7 years since its RPS was initially enacted.
Texas uses more total energy—including electricity, petroleum, natural gas,
and coal—than any other state. In the early 1990s, Texas' use of renewable
energy was less than 1 percent, the lowest in the United States. In 1992, Texas
became a net importer of energy. Moreover, if Texas was a country, it would have
ranked 7th in the world for greenhouse gas emissions in the early 1990s,
according to climate change experts at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
Despite these conditions, however, Texas also ranks first in abundance of U.S.
solar and biomass resources, and second for wind resources. To encourage the use
