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EPA director defends RFS decisions

Top StoryThe nation’s largest farmer-member group says the EPA’s final numbers in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) for 2014 through ’16 are too low.

The American Farm Bureau’s statement says “farmers, ranchers and consumers will be impacted by the drop in ethanol production and the falloff in livestock feed that goes along with it.”

But, Chris Grundler, EPA’s director of Transportation and Air quality, tells Brownfield Ag News it’s not a matter of whether farmers can produce higher amounts of corn ethanol, it’s a matter of timing, “It’s more of a matter of getting that ethanol to drivers’ tanks in this time period.”

Grundler says 12 months is not enough time.

“Keep in mind we do not set a specific ethanol mandate. The market will choose how to achieve the total standard. And, that total standard is more than 1.8 Billion gallons. ‘B’ as in bushel, above the 2014 levels of production.”

“Congress established a cap on conventional biofuels, first generation biofuels, like corn ethanol. And they set that cap at 15 Billion. These standards would get 97% of the way there.”

The EPA’s volume numbers for all renewable fuels are higher than first proposed in June.  Still, the American Farm Bureau says “in the end, (the U.S.) will lose the jobs and stability that come from growing renewable fuel.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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