Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 2/4/15

Two major U.S. poultry associations are backing a Congressional effort to fix what one group calls “our badly broken federal ethanol mandate.”

The National Chicken Council (NCC) and National Turkey Federation are supporting legislation introduced today by four congressmen calling for reforms to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). If approved by Congress, the bill launched by Congressmen Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) may lead to the elimination of the corn-based ethanol mandate and repeal requirements to blend 15-percent ethanol into the national fuel supply.

“Since the RFS was enacted, chicken producers alone have incurred almost $50 billion in cumulative additional feed costs,” noted NCC President Mike Brown. “The problem with the RFS is that it mandates the use of corn for ethanol, regardless of what makes economic sense, regardless of who is hurt and regardless of what it costs,” he added.

National Turkey Federation President Joel Brandenberger added: “EPA’s failure to finalize its initial 2014 proposal to reduce Renewable Fuel Standard levels for corn ethanol blended into gasoline proves the RFS mandate is fundamentally flawed and unworkable.”

President Jimmy Carter and Congress first started subsidizing ethanol 37 years ago as part of the "infant industry" theory of economics, which contends that certain industries need government support to get up and running on their own, according to the NCC. The organization also questions why the U.S. ethanol industry exported more than 800 million gallons of the corn-based fuel in 2014 if it is so vital to American energy security.

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