All cooking oil is not created equal. Chinese imports of used cooking oil hurt soybean growers in this country, U.S. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa maintains.
Used cooking oil can be a reliable source for sustainable aviation fuel, an energy source full of promise for Midwest producers, Grassley, a Republican, asserts. But imports from China dilute that potential.
“We want that made out of soybeans. But it can be made out of almost anything that has grease in it,” Grassley told Iowa reporters.
“Used cooking oil has grease in it.”
Imported used cooking oil gets a federal subsidy, something Grassley does not believe makes any sense. And that federal subsidy for the used cooking oil that originated in China or another country could be larger than American-produced soybeans.
That makes no sense for American energy production, Grassley contends.
RELATED: Radio Iowa has this story on how Iowa hopes to build a refinery for sustainable aviation fuel production. Other states like North Dakota and Montana already have them. But a federal tax credit could spur additional interest in the energy source. Read that story here.
“Renewable fuel policies like the national Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) have created a boom in the consumption of alternative diesels. These alternative diesels come in the form of biodiesel or renewable diesel, or biomass-based diesels (BBDs) as a group,” a Farm Policy News report stated.
The report examined how rising used cooking oil demand influences crop-oil prices.
There is an increased focus on the environmental side of energy production. The Farm Policy News reported stated, “The primary vegetable oil consumed in most Asian countries is palm oil, which is associated with far worse emissions from land use change than soybean and canola oil, and renewable fuel programs in the United States essentially ban the oil as a result.”
Other energy production sources are getting attention. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has a critical piece on Nevada’s efforts to expand renewable fuel production.
Legislators passed a mandate in 2019 that Nevada gets 50% of its renewable sources by 2030. Voters made that commitment part of the state’s constitution in 2020.
However, the op-ed piece points out that a transmission project’s costs have far exceeded initial expectations. The energy company wants ratepayers to pay a share of those costs over the next 70 years.
The piece uses an analogy from the Christmas classic, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to illustrate its assertion that taxpayers are not getting what lawmakers promised them five years ago.
“Every Who down in Whoville liked cheap, reliable energy a lot … But the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did NOT! The Grinch hated cheap energy! The whole reliable energy season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason,” the op-ed piece read.
