DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY: KEY CHALLENGES REMAIN FOR DEVELOPING AND DEPLOYING ADVANCED ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES TO MEET FUTURE NEEDS - Deployment of Advanced Energy Technologies - page 65

[9] The alternative fuels production credit is a tax credit of $3 per oil equivalent
barrel (in 1979 dollars) for gas produced from biomass or synthetic fuels
produced from coal.
[10] Flex fuel vehicles operate on any blend of ethanol and gasoline, from 0
percent ethanol and 100 percent gasoline, up to 85 percent ethanol and 15
percent gasoline.
[11] See also GAO, Renewable Energy: Increased Geothermal Development
Will Depend on Overcoming Many Challenges, GAO-06-629 (Washington,
D.C.: May 24, 2006).
[12] Geothermal heat pumps are used for space heating and cooling, as well as
water heating. The heat pump transfers heat stored in the earth or in
groundwater into a building during the winter and transfers it out of the
building and back into the ground during the summer.
[13] Under the Clean Air Act, EPA sets limits on how much of a pollutant can be
in the air anywhere in the United States, which it can enforce by fining
companies that violate air pollution limits.
[14] EPA has promulgated a Clean Air Mercury Rule for mercury and a Clean
Air Interstate Rule for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide reductions across
the states.
[15] See 54 Fed. Reg . 15383 (1989).
[16] In 1977, President Carter announced plans to indefinitely suspend U.S.
reprocessing efforts.
[17] The national renewable fuels standard establishes a baseline for renewable
fuel use, beginning with 4 billion gallons per year in 2006 and expanding to
7.5 billion gallons by 2012.
[18] According to EIA, oil refineries decided to eliminate MTBE primarily
because (1) many states have banned MTBE because of water
contamination concerns, (2) industry's liability exposure by adding MTBE
to gasoline, and (3) industry's perception that liability exposure increased
because the Energy Policy Act of 2005 eliminated the oxygen content
requirement for reformulated gasoline.
[19] DOE and USDA, Biomass as Feedstock for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts
Industry: The Technical Feasibility of a Billion-Ton Annual Supply , April
2005.
[20] It is a normal occurrence for water to accumulate in oil pipelines. In most
cases, water enters the system through terminal and refinery tank roofs or
can be dissolved in fuels during refinery processes. Introducing ethanol into
an oil pipeline risks rendering it unusable as a transportation fuel.