November was a roller coaster ride for our nation’s biofuels mandate. On Nov. 28, two new reports by the Government Accountability Office – Congress’ non-partisan watchdog agency – were released echoing what my organization has said for years: the Renewable Fuel Standard is a failure. While the standard was intended to help achieve U.S. energy independence and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the GAO found the opposite: “It is unlikely that the goals of the Renewable Fuel Standard will be met … because there is limited production of advanced biofuels to be blended into domestic transportation fuels.”

The majority of Renewable Fuel Standard gallons consumed to date have instead been corn-starch ethanol, a biofuel that may actually increase emissions. Meanwhile, production of cellulosic biofuels, required to reduce emissions by at least 60 percent, has fallen at least 95 percent short of Congressional mandates.

Rewind to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, when the Environmental Protection Agency handed the corn ethanol lobby an early Christmas present: a 15 billion gallon blending requirement in 2017, an increase of 200 million gallons from the agency’s proposal this summer, but on par with the mandate Congress set in 2007. If the EPA would have heeded its own advice (or the GAO’s, or that of the National Academy of Sciences or the Congressional Budget Office), it would have reversed course.