NCERC’s Caupert to Testify at EPA Public Hearing
John Caupert, director of The NCERC at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, will testify Thursday at an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) public hearing being held in Kansas City, Kan. Caupert will voice his opposition to the proposed levels of Renewable Volume Obligations (RVO’s) under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).
According to Caupert, if the proposed levels are finalized, many sectors of the U.S. will be financially devastated. He asserts that lower RVO’s would create uncertainty in the marketplace, resulting in millions of dollars of biofuels contractual research projects to be halted.
“The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center is a nationally recognized center in both the public and private sectors,” explains Caupert. “During the past 12 years, more than $36 million dollars of contractual research has been performed by the NCERC, resulting in more than 50 products and new technologies in the commercial marketplace.
“With this level of RVO’s, investment in research, development and commercialization won’t be postponed or slowed, it will stop. Thousands of biofuels professionals will become unemployed.
Caupert emphasizes that the Renewable Fuels Standard is not only about clean air, job creation, economic opportunity and energy independence, it’s about national security. He concludes that RVO’s need to return to statutory levels.
Photo: John Caupert, director of the NCERC at SIUE.
