The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) has set a public hearing of its proposed "Changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard Program" in June 2009. A report by the American firm, McGuire Woods gives a summary and some issues related to the US-EPA's renewable fuels greenhouse gas emissions rule. As a background, the United States Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 amended the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005 which mandated the blending of renewable fuels (such as ethanol) in transport fuels. The EISA increased the mandated renewable energy volumes and extended the time frames stipulated in the EPAct. It also required that GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions "must be met for each subcategory of renewable fuel in order for that fuel to qualify for the blending mandate". Furthermore, to qualify, "a renewable fuel must be demonstrated to result in significant reductions in GHG emissions over its entire "lifecycle" as compared to the gasoline it is displacing". The US-EPA was then required by the US Congress to "undertake a rulemaking", to implement the GHG reduction requirement. It also required that the "lifecycle" emissions include "significant indirect emissions…from land use changes." The McGuire-Woods report points out some issues related to the proposed rule: (1) quantification of emissions by "indirect" land use changes seem to have a significant number of assumptions, and the EPA mentions that in the accounting of "indirect" impacts, further studies and peer review maybe necessary and (2) the EPA proposes a "narrower" definition of "renewable biomass", and it also proposes to exclude "the broad category of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as an eligible feedstock based on the fact that EISA specifically references only "separated" yard and food waste". However, the EPA recognizes that the exclusion of MSW may eliminate "a large and energy rich source of renewable fuels feedstock", and calls for public comment. Details of the McGuire-Woods report (including the implications of the rule on the US corn ethanol industry) is available at their website (URL above)..