During yesterday's RFS 2 hearing, the testimony of a representative from Valero veered from the standard ethanol industry message on the EPA rule on ethanol production emmissions and inderict land use calculations.

From Phil Brasher at the Des Moines Register:

The newest big player in ethanol, Valero Energy Corp., is not on the same team as the rest of the industry when it comes to measuring the greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels.

and

At an EPA public hearing on Tuesday, a Valero representative endorsed the agency's emission assessments. But he said the assessments were irrelevant to the company since existing ethanol plants will not be required to meet the emission targets to qualify for the usage mandates. [emphasis added] Valero, one of the nation's largest oil refiners, is now both a user and supplier of ethanol, having recently acquired seven ethanol plants from VeraSun Energy. Four of the plants are in Iowa.

Valero's John Braeutigam said the company knew when it acquired the plants that they were exempt from the emission targets, ensuring that "there would be a market for their production."

Recall that EWG Midwest VP Craig Cox made the same point in his recent op-ed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It makes us wonder what the industry is really trying to achieve through their massive PR offensive against an RFS rule that they can largely ignore since essentially all their plants are grandfathered in.