Pressure Builds for Trump to Change Federal Ethanol Mandate

January 20, 2018

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by Debra J. Saunders (Tampa Bay Newspapers) ... But now free-market conservative groups and oil-state Republicans are pushing the administration to cut the corn cord.

For Ken Cuccinelli of the conservative group FreedomWorks, it’s a moral issue. As the former GOP Virginia attorney general sees it, the ethanol mandate, which is part of Renewable Fuel Standards adopted in 2005 and 2007, drives up the price of both fuel and food.

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Former Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., sent out a note last week in which he lamented that the RFS legislation he supported in 2007 “has not stood the test of time.” The letter accompanied a report by the Rethink Ethanol coalition that focused on the law’s devastating unintended consequences.

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Cuccinelli faulted the assumptions that drove the 2007 regulations. Officialdom predicted that Americans would be increasingly reliant on foreign fuel and that the U.S. fuel supply would continue to drop. Fracking upended those assumptions, which now are “devoid of any market reality.”

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Liz Bowman, spokesperson for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Pruitt will continue to have discussions about forms “with regard to what we can realistically achieve, while following the statute.” READ MORE

Ethanol To The Rescue of Higher Gas Prices (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Tom Purcell: Take ethanol mandate and shovel it, feds! (TribLive)

Letter to the Editor: Columnist Purcell on wrong track about ethanol (Oelwein Daily Register)

Letter to the Editor: Ethanol has stood the test of time (Effingham Daily News)

MORE on ethanol prices

Excerpt from Effingham Daily News: Over the past four decades, Americans have spent a shrinking percentage of their income on food. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that since 1975, the figure has dropped from 13 percent to 9 percent – among the lowest in the world.

The column claims that 40 percent of U.S. corn goes to ethanol production. It fails to mention that one-third of that corn produces livestock feed as a co-product. Ethanol’s net use of the country’s corn supply is 26 percent.

Another claim is that ethanol “may” lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions. Ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent compared to gasoline. It also reduces emissions of carbon monoxide and other toxins. READ MORE

Excerpt from Oelwein Daily Register: All small engine manufacturers in the US approve the use of ethanol-blended gasoline (E10), including his Toro manufactured snow blower. If there were exceptional issues with ethanol, it would not have been approved. Ethanol burns cleaner and cooler than gasoline. Unfortunately, ethanol also incorrectly receives the blame with the problems he experienced.

The truth is gasoline contains over 150 chemicals. Chemicals like benzene and toluene that are not only toxic and harmful to the environment, but over time will produce gum and varnish, as well as peroxides that are more corrosive to rubber and plastic components than ethanol. Ethanol does not degrade. Gasoline degrades over time, only having a shelf life of 30-60 days, thus the need for a stabilizer.

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Whether you choose ethanol because you want cleaner air or because higher blends of ethanol are frequently priced lower than gasoline, the bottom-line is ethanol provides consumers with options at the pump.

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Mr. Purcell mentions the $200 he had to spend to rebuild his snow blowers and would like a tax deduction for that. Now that we know ethanol is not to blame, may I suggest we reform the tax code by taking the $36 Billion a year in oil subsidies (not including negative health and environmental impacts) and send that money back to consumers or to the families of our military that are protecting that oil? READ MORE