RFS Waiver Comments Due Tomorrow
Corn growing, environmental, hunger and consumer groups support waiver
Public comments on whether EPA should temporarily waive the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on ethanol, a federal mandate on how much corn-based ethanol gasoline refiners must blend with their fuels, are due Oct. 11, and groups favoring the waiver have pulled out all the stops to get as many comments on their side of the ledger as possible.
While the EPA Aug. 30 Federal Register call for public comments focuses on formal petitions filed by the governors of Arkansas and North Carolina, six other state executives – Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Georgia, Texas and New Mexico – have asked for relief, and a petition under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) was filed with EPA by 19 national livestock, poultry, feed and meat processing organizations in July.
In addition, several national consumer, environmental and hunger groups, have made public statements supporting the RFS waiver, and the head of the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has publicly stated the U.S. should waive the ethanol mandate based on the 2012 drought, depleted domestic stocks reducing export and food aid availability and skyrocketing corn prices – the same basic arguments made by industry – lest these conditions contribute to a global food crisis. Livestock and poultry producer groups are asking their individual member companies to file comments as well, and in the integrated industry, contract growers and their employees are also filing comments supporting the RFS waiver petition.
