[Pine Island Guy]

I'm sure the corn growers have a powerful lobby... but hopefully this makes it through and is signed!

enjoy the snow everyone! -PIG

FOUR U.S. LAWMAKERS BEGIN SECOND EFFORT AT BIOFUELS REFORM BILL

02/04/15

A group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers will begin their second attempt on Wednesday to introduce a bill that would reform the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) program in the United States, targeting an end to ethanol fuel-blending mandates.

The lawmakers said the bill would eliminate requirements for corn-based ethanol blending and cap blending levels for other biofuels at actual production levels. They hope the latest move will garner support now after months of disputes over how much biofuel should be blended with oil-based fuels and growing concerns that the program drives up agriculture and food costs.

The RFS Reform Act is the latest bid in recent years by Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Steve Womack (R-AR), Peter Welch (D-VT) and Jim Costa (D-CA) to change a government program that Welch described as a "well-intended flop" in an interview this week.

"We're going full bore again with this Congress," said Goodlatte, who also plans to introduce an even tougher bill on Wednesday that would repeal the RFS altogether.

The reform would effectively do away with a mandate that corn-based ethanol be blended in gasoline and repeal the waiver that raised the cap on ethanol content at 15 percent from 10 percent after Congress expanded the RFS policy in 2007.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) urged his colleagues to remove a corn-based ethanol mandate from the RFS, saying the mandate hurts a diverse range of people and businesses including farmers, small engine users and restaurants.
Dairy farming is a major industry in Vermont. Welch said the ethanol mandate, which started in 2005, has created a new demand for corn and other grains and raised feed costs for livestock farmers. “They were telling me about how much their grain costs were going up and it’s killing them,” Welch said Thursday at a policy forum on the RFS hosted by The Hill. “And they were attributing that to ethanol.”

Welch started to oppose the RFS shortly after he began serving Vermont’s at-large congressional district in 2007. He told a story about how ethanol once wrecked a chainsaw he owned. “I left it with the gas in, and I couldn’t get it started, and I was pretty blue about it,” Welch said. “I brought it into my small engine guy, Lloyd, and he said ‘Peter, you left the ethanol in there, and it wrecks it.’ ”

The increased food costs that hurt livestock farmers also hurt restaurants, Welch said. It affects poultry, beef, pork, other agricultural products. And at a local level ... “it costs $18,000 a year for each restaurant because of the RFS,” said Rob Green, executive director of the group. “And if you sell more beef, it can be as high as $35,000 a year per restaurant.”

Furthermore, the energy it takes to produce ethanol is close to the amount of energy in the fuel. “Many studies suggest that it’s in the negative or barely positive,” Welch said. “But it’s close. It’s not this huge benefit in renewable fuel that had originally been advertised.”