EPA rejects bid to relax ethanol mandate

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Detroit News:

Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday rejected a request from eight governors and nearly 200 members of Congress to waive requirements for the use of corn-based ethanol in gasoline, after last summer's severe drought wilted much of the nation's corn crop.

The move is a victory for corn farmers who have seen corn prices jump 400 percent in recent years. But it is a loss for pork and beef producers who say the diversion of corn to ethanol raises feed prices and ultimately prices at the supermarket.

Automakers have clashed with ethanol advocates and opposed boosting the percentage of ethanol. They argue that higher concentrations of ethanol in gasoline — which may be necessary in order to meet stepped-up minimums for annual ethanol usage — can harm engines in most vehicles on the road today.

Congress is likely to take up the issue again next year amid concerns about the growing amount of corn being shifted from the world's food supply and into the nation's 240 million gas tanks.

The EPA said Friday it had not found evidence to support a finding of severe "economic harm" that would warrant granting a waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standard. The law was signed in 2007 by President George W. Bush and requires production of increasing quantities of ethanol.

"We recognize that this year's drought has created hardship in some sectors of the economy, particularly for livestock producers," said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation. "But our extensive analysis makes clear that congressional requirements for a waiver have not been met and that waiving the RFS will have little, if any, impact."

Michal Rosenoer, biofuels policy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, criticized the EPA decision.

"If the worst U.S. drought in more than 50 years and skyrocketing food prices are not enough to make EPA act, it falls to Congress to provide relief from our senseless federal support for corn ethanol," he said.

"The RFS is a broken policy — rather than giving us clean energy, it's incentivizing biofuels like corn ethanol that are exacerbating our economic and environmental problems.

"Congress needs to cut corn ethanol from the RFS entirely to protect the economy and the environment from this destructive and dirty fuel."

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Trying to cut back on King Corn.

[Valin]

Detroit News:

Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday rejected a request from eight governors and nearly 200 members of Congress to waive requirements for the use of corn-based ethanol in gasoline, after last summer's severe drought wilted much of the nation's corn crop.

 

 

Obviously they hate the earth.