It’s been two months since the public comment period ended on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to cut the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and drastically reduce the amount of the homegrown ethanol blended in our fuel.
Over 7,000 Minnesota corn farmers signed letters telling EPA to not mess with the RFS. EPA still hasn’t decided if it will keep the proposed cuts, scale them back, or ditch them altogether. A decision will likely come sometime this summer, but there is no set date.
Meantime, news about which way EPA might be leaning trickles out here and there.
- In early February, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy hinted during remarks to state departments of agriculture officials that her agency might scale down the original proposal, which called for cutting 1.4 billion gallons of ethanol from the U.S. fuel supply.
- On Thursday, McCarthy spoke at a House appropriations committee hearing and appeared to be standing firm on the proposal, citing the mythical “blend wall.”
- Speaking to the Chippewa County Corn Growers earlier this month, Congressman Collin Peterson was optimistic that EPA would back off its reduction and said, “We’ll probably end up with something we can live with.”
There are other examples of comments we could scrutinize or hints being dropped that could be interpreted one way or another. Obviously, corn farmers and biofuels supporters get their hopes up whenever one of those hints appears to indicate a reversal in the original proposal. Big Oil and the anti-ethanol crowd embrace the nuggets of information that might indicate EPA is standing pat with its original proposal.
Unfortunately, all we can do is wait. Minnesota corn farmers and biofuels supporters have made their voices heard on the issue and showed how damaging the proposal would be to agriculture, rural communities, consumers’ pocket books and the environment.
Will it be enough to get EPA to change its mind? Stay tuned…