Midwestern members of the Governor’s Biofuels Coalition have written to President Obama, the head of the EPA and the U.S. ag secretary, asking them to reconsider volume reductions under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
Nebraska Ethanol Board administrator Todd Sneller says if the EPA’s proposed cut holds up, it will hurt both ag and non-ag economies.
“This will have an impact on financial institutions, engineering firms, manufacturing, trucking and transportation companies and a number of citizens of the state who have become employees of the allied industries and the ethanol plants themselves,” Sneller says.
Nebraska is the nation’s number-two ethanol producer, behind only Iowa.
Sneller says if the EPA’s proposal passes, it will also cause investor worries in the corn ethanol and second generation ethanol industries, as well as biodiesel plants.
“We need to have an extremely firm public policy, as we’ve had since 2005, that indicates the private sector can have confidence in making these massive investments in renewable domestic biofuels,” he says.
The Governor’s Biofuels Coalition also encourages the EPA to increase the volume to reflect current production levels, to modify the cellulosic target to match production expectations, and to reinstate the conventional renewable fuel target, since there is no domestic supply shortage.
By Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton