The Obama administration will attempt to pull a bait-and-switch in the news cycle on Tuesday as the administration officially shifts the policy regarding the purpose and mission of biofuels.

As the Environmental Protection Agency proposes new standards for measuring biofuels emissions, the White House will shift the story away from new obscure rules by rolling out administration officials to talk about more clean-energy investments and initiatives.

In different articles Monday night, Reuters reported on the administration's plans to promote different biofuels while Dow Jones reported on the EPA's new greenhouse-gas emissions standards. Indirect land use will be factored in to make the claim that production of corn-based ethanol has shifted land use. Now, under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, current ethanol plants are grandfathered in, and may not have to worry about any higher greenhouse-gas life cycle. Biodiesel promoters were worried about the ruling's impact because biodiesel plants did not get such an exemption.

According to Dow Jones, the EPA will effectively take the position the California Air Resources Board laid out in its low-carbon fuel standard two weeks ago. California's rule, however, did affect ethanol producers.

Reuters reported late Monday that President Barack Obama has directed Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to form a working group to "identify policies that will make biofuels more environmentally sound and encourage production of flex-fuel cares that can run on either gasoline or fuel that is mostly ethanol," according to a memo Reuters received.

Reuters stated Vilsack will be asked to preserve jobs in the biofuels industry but also increase investment and promotion of second-generation fuels that would be considered more environmentally friendly.

As Dow Jones highlighted "The Obama administration's announcements appear designed to walk a fine line between supporting the ethanol industry and delivering a potentially tough message."

And here is where we see the pendulum truly swing from policies of the Bush administration to the Obama administration. Under Bush, biofuels such as ethanol were promoted as a way to help make the country less dependent on foreign oil. Policy under Obama, though, has now clearly shifted into finding biofuels that will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.