CATF Comments on Proposed New York City Biodiesel Heating Fuel Mandate

The Clean Air Task Force (CATF) opposes New York City's proposed biodiesel heating fuel mandate, arguing that increasing demand for vegetable oil-derived biodiesel drives the expansion of palm oil production. This expansion leads to the destruction of tropical peatland forests, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, resulting in significant carbon dioxide releases and public health crises. CATF contends that even soybean-based biodiesel contributes to these impacts through global market fungibility and that current USEPA lifecycle analyses underestimate these greenhouse gas emissions.

• The expansion of palm oil production, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia, causes severe environmental and social damage, including the displacement of indigenous peoples, water degradation, habitat destruction, and "enormous releases of carbon dioxide when tropical peatland forests are drained, burned, and converted into palm oil plantations".
• Palm oil production is linked to a public health crisis in Southeast Asia; land-clearing fires used for agricultural expansion contributed to more than 100,000 premature deaths in 2015.
• CATF asserts that USEPA's 2010 lifecycle analyses (LCA) of net GHG emissions for soybean-based biodiesel are outdated and underestimate the connection between soybean oil and the expansion of palm oil production.
• A 2015 study for the European Commission found that net GHG emissions from land use change associated with soybean oil production are 150gC02e/MJ, which is over 50% higher than the rate for petroleum diesel.
• CATF recommends that New York City avoid arbitrary percentage-based consumption targets and instead only promote biodiesel made from "recycled cooking oils and algal oil", rather than oilseed crops.

APA

Clean Air Task Force (2016). CATF Comments on Proposed New York City Biodiesel Heating Fuel Mandate. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/21094311/CATF_Filing_Biofuels_CommentsNYCBiodieselMandate.pdf

Chicago

Clean Air Task Force. CATF Comments on Proposed New York City Biodiesel Heating Fuel Mandate. 2016. https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/21094311/CATF_Filing_Biofuels_CommentsNYCBiodieselMandate.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Clean Air Task Force |title=CATF Comments on Proposed New York City Biodiesel Heating Fuel Mandate |date=20 September 2016 |url=https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/21094311/CATF_Filing_Biofuels_CommentsNYCBiodieselMandate.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{cleanairtaskforce2016catf, author = {{Clean Air Task Force}}, title = {{CATF Comments on Proposed New York City Biodiesel Heating Fuel Mandate}}, publisher = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2016}, month = sep, url = {https://cdn.catf.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/21094311/CATF_Filing_Biofuels_CommentsNYCBiodieselMandate.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }