8-24 IAN EPA Ethanol

 The National Grange recently urged the Environmental Protection Agency to cooperate with a group of livestock producers who filed a petition with the EPA requesting a one-year waiver from the agency's renewable fuel standard (RFS) rule. The rule requires that 15 billion gallons of domestically produced ethanol be incorporated into the United States' gasoline supply by 2022. In 2012, roughly 40% of all domestic corn production is dedicated to ethanol production. 

Livestock producers asked the EPA, which retains the authority to waive the RFS rule should they deem that it is causing severe environmental or economic damage, to lift the rule in light of the nationwide drought that has devastated thousands of farms and ranchers.  

 I called Amanda Leigh Brozana,national Grange spokesperson "In a year such as this where drought conditions are the worst they have been in more than 50 years or longer in some areas, the EPA must be flexible." Our nation's farmers are proud to be part of the movement against the dependence on foreign energy, however, that movement has to be tempered against the American public's ability to obtain affordable and safe meat products, corn and corn-derived foods.”