Clean fuel?

Just when you thought that more ethanol would help reduce pollution and is good for the environment, you find the EPA is doing this:

Looks like Cargill used "best engineering judgement" and the EPA called their bluff. Best engineering judgement is perfectly acceptable, just make sure you over=estimate the emissions, then add 10%. Explaining less is always easier, and cheaper, than explaining more.

News for Release: Thursday, September 1, 2005

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Federal, Multi-State Clean Air Act Settlement
with Cargill, Inc., Secures Major Pollution Reductions

Eighty-one Percent of Uncontrolled Ethanol Production Capacity Now Under
Federal
Consent Decrees

Contacts: EPA, 913-551-7003; DOJ, 202-514-2007; TDD 202-514-1888


(Washington, D.C.-September 1, 2005) The Department of Justice and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a multi-state Clean
Air Act settlement with Cargill, Inc. (Cargill), which will result in a
reduction of approximately 30,000 tons of pollution a year and set new
standards for limiting harmful emissions from specialty oilseed plants.
Cargill is a multi-state agribusiness that owns and operates 27 plants
which process corn, wheat, soybeans, and other oilseeds into value-added
products used in the food, feed, and ethanol industries.

The government's complaint, filed in federal district court in
Minnesota, alleges that Cargill had significantly underestimated
emissions from its operations in 13 states. Under the settlement,
Cargill is required to install air pollution control devices at its 27
corn and oilseed processing facilities and is expected to spend an
estimated $130 million to meet the requirements of the consent decree.
Cargill will also pay a civil penalty of $1.6 million and spend $3.5
million on environmental projects across the country.

Ten states and four counties have joined the federal government in
today's settlement: Alabama; Georgia; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa;
Missouri; Nebraska; North Carolina; North Dakota; Ohio; Memphis and
Shelby County, Tennessee; Montgomery County, Ohio; and Linn and Polk
Counties, Iowa. The civil penalty and environmental project monies will
be shared with the participating states and counties.

"All Americans benefit when large corporations agree to bring their
facilities into compliance with our nation's environmental laws," said
Acting Assistant Attorney General Kelly A. Johnson, of the Justice
Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "Today's
settlement is positive proof of the continued progress we are achieving
with the grain industry, through the cooperative enforcement efforts of
federal, state, and local agencies."

Today's settlement calls for broad sweeping environmental improvements
at all nine of Cargill's corn processing plants, significantly advancing
recent efforts by the government to bring the ethanol industry into
compliance. With the lodging of today's consent decree, 81 percent of
uncontrolled ethanol production capacity will now be under settlement
agreements to install air pollution control technologies to reduce
emissions. The new technology standards established by this initiative
apply to all ethanol plants now under construction. Ethanol is
primarily a product of industrial corn and has been increasingly used as
an automobile fuel alone or blended with gasoline. Ethanol's high
oxygen content allows automobile engines to better combust fuel,
resulting in reduced tail pipe emissions. The installation of air
pollution controls at ethanol plants across the country will ensure that
this fuel can be made cleanly.

Cargill's corn processing plants are significant sources of volatile
organic compounds (VOC's) and carbon monoxide (CO). In addition to
contributing to ground-level ozone (smog), VOC's can cause serious
health problems such as cancer and other effects; CO is harmful because
it reduces oxygen delivery to the body's organs and tissues. Cargill's
oilseed plants emit a hazardous air pollutant, n-hexane, and are sources
of VOC pollution.

"Cargill is following others in this industry by installing the
appropriate controls and greatly reducing its air emissions, resulting
in cleaner, healthier air," said Granta Y. Nakayama, EPA's Assistant
Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
"This agreement will improve the environment and at the same time create
a level playing field in the industry."

Under the settlements, the corn processing plants are required to
install or enhance thermal oxidizers and scrubbers that will reduce VOC
emissions up to 98 percent, or 10,450 tons per year, and will reduce CO
emissions by 10,900 tons per year--the equivalent of taking 1.16 million
and 157,000 cars off the road each year, respectively. The settlement
also will result in annual reductions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 1,350
tons, sulfur dioxide (SO2) by 2,250 tons per year, and additional
reductions in particulate matter (PM) and hazardous air pollutants. The
oilseed processing plants will meet more stringent limits for HAP and
VOC emissions to reduce allowable emissions by more than 2,300 tons per
year. New limits for these plants will, in some instances, be as much
as 50 percent lower than current regulatory standards in the industry.

The United States initiated enforcement action against Cargill with the
issuance of notices of violation against two oilseed plants in 2002 and
all nine corn mill plants in 2003. This settlement comes three years
after federal and state agreements with 12 Ethanol Plants in Minnesota
and the April 2003 settlement with Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill's
largest competitor in this industry.

Under the settlement, Cargill will spend $3.5 million on environmental
projects, which include funding for the Mid-South Clean Air Coalition
Diesel Retrofit Program in Tennessee, as well as wetland restoration
projects in Iowa and Nebraska.

Today's agreement has resulted from the combined enforcement efforts of
many state and local entities whose participation in this federal action
was instrumental in obtaining the quality of the settlement at hand.

The consent decree was lodged in federal district court in Minneapolis,
Minn., and is subject to a 30-day comment period. A copy of the consent
decree is available on the Department of Justice website at:
http://www.usdoj.gov/enrd/pressroom.htm

For more information about the settlement, go to:
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/caa/cargill.html