EPA’s finalized emissions rule will harm family farms
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a vehicle emissions rule for light- and medium-duty vehicles that will have negative implications for corn farmers, rural economies, and, ultimately, all drivers. The finalized rule essentially requires automakers to produce only electric vehicles in the future at the expense of other proven technologies that reduce tailpipe emissions, including higher biofuel blends.
The Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) is disappointed in the finalized rule, which does not offer a level playing field for evaluating emissions-reduction potential of a suite of low-carbon fuels and technologies. Notably, the rule fails to account for emissions related to electricity generation and EV battery mineral mining and processing and gives no credit for emissions reductions from low-carbon fuel sources, including corn ethanol.
“The rule misses an opportunity to take advantage of ethanol’s proven ability to reduce transportation sector emissions,” MCGA President Dana Allen-Tully said in a statement. “It’s disappointing that the EPA did not instead focus on outcomes and opening pathways for all low-carbon fuels and technologies, which would enable strong vehicle emission standards, cut tailpipe emissions, and offer greater fuel efficiency and consumer costs savings.”
The EPA’s rule will require that 56 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States be electric only by 2032, discounting the emissions reduction benefits of ethanol blends.
In a statement, National Corn Growers Association President Harold Wolle said the organization is concerned that the EPA chose to force a one-size-fit-all solution to reduce emissions and ignored readily available solutions like biofuels.
“This decision will not only severely hamper the administration’s ability to reach its own climate goals, but it will also hurt family farms and rural communities that rely heavily on the sale of biofuels,” he said. “On top of that, it will remove consumer choice from the market.”
