Lawmakers push EPA to waive corn ethanol requirement

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should waive a corn ethanol production target for as long as possible to reduce costs for ranchers, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said Thursday.

The congressmen discussed a letter signed by 156 legislators that urges EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to scale back the renewable fuel standard (RFS) in the face of a nationwide drought.

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said the shortage of corn combined with this year’s target of blending 13.2 billion gallons of corn ethanol into traditional transportation fuel has increased operational costs for livestock companies in his district.

“The price of corn is killing these companies. And if something isn’t done and done fast, many of them will have to reduce production, which will lead to layoffs,” Womack said.

The EPA administrator can waive the ethanol target in part or in whole if reaching it causes severe economic or environmental harm.

“That provision was written for conditions like the one we experience today,” Womack said.

A pair of corn ethanol trade groups is holding a press conference at noon Thursday in support of the ethanol target.

Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.), who sponsored a bill that would let the EPA reduce the corn ethanol target by as much as 50 percent when corn stocks run low, also implored Jackson to invoke the RFS waiver.

Goodlatte said in a response to a question from E-2 Wire that the bipartisan letter shows momentum exists for his bill, though he did not indicate any specific plans for it.

Both Goodlatte and Costa favor eliminating the corn ethanol portion of the RFS, but want to preserve the part that sets a quota for “next generation” cellulosic biofuel. They say corn ethanol production has raised food prices both domestically and internationally by tying corn production to fuel.