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Hagan cosponsors bipartisan bill to eliminate corn-ethanol mandate
Story Date: 12/13/2013
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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 12/12/13
U.S. Senator Kay Hagan is cosponsoring a bipartisan bill to eliminate corn ethanol from the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The bill maintains the production requirements for advanced and cellulosic biofuels, which do not drive up food and feed prices on North Carolina consumers and poultry and livestock producers.
“The Renewable Fuel Standard is bringing next-generation biofuels to markets that strengthen U.S. energy security and spur economic development in rural North Carolina,” Hagan said. “By eliminating the corn-ethanol mandate of the RFS, this bill will provide relief from high corn prices without harming investments in advanced biofuels.”
More than 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is now used to produce ethanol for transportation fuel.
“This Fall, a turkey plant in Hoke County shut its doors, taking nearly 1,000 jobs along with it,” said Bob Ford, Executive Director of the North Carolina Poultry Federation. “The reason for its closure? Soaring feed prices brought on by the mass conversion of U.S. corn into fuel in an effort to meet federal ethanol mandates. It’s clear that the harmful effects of our nation’s Renewable Fuel Standard no longer linger at North Carolina’s doorstep as our $12.8 billion dollar poultry industry suffocates, hundreds of thousands jobs hang in the balance, food prices swell, and our wallets lighten. The North Carolina Poultry Federation applauds Senator Hagan’s efforts to right this wrong and eliminate the harmful corn ethanol mandate from the Renewable Fuels Standard.”
The Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act of 2013, introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Tom Coburn (OK), has been cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 8 Senators.
Last August, record droughts in the Midwest caused corn yields to shrink and prices to spike. In response, Hagan led a bipartisan group of Senators in sending a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson urging her to use the agency’s waiver authority to adjust the RFS corn ethanol mandate to provide relief for producers and consumers.
Agriculture is North Carolina’s largest industry, and $40 billion of the $77 billion in economic activity comes from the poultry and hog industry. North Carolina currently ranks second in pork production and second in total poultry production.
About the RFS
The Renewable Fuel Standard requires oil refiners and blenders to use 18.15 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2014. The requirement increases each year, climbing to 36 billion gallons in 2022. The law requires that an increasing portion of the renewable fuel be made up of “advanced biofuels,” which are not made from corn. However, under current law, 14.4 billion gallons of the 2014 RFS mandate, and 15 billion gallons each year thereafter, will be met using corn ethanol.
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