NCC Applauds Reintroduction of Bipartisan Bill to Reform Ethanol Mandate

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) today reintroduced the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Reform Act (H.R. 1315), that would among other things, eliminate the corn-based ethanol requirements of the RFS. 

The National Chicken Council applauded the reintroduction. 

“This is the perfect time to get these important and well considered reform proposals on the drawing board,” said Mike Brown, president of the National Chicken Council.  “There is widespread dissatisfaction across the board with the RFS, and the EPA’s administration of it.  Reform of the RFS is inevitable.  This bipartisan legislation is a good place to start.”

Ethanol production continues to grow beyond what was foreseen when the RFS was created in 2007.  Through the first half of the 2016/2017 corn marketing year, weekly ethanol production has averaged more than 1 million barrels per day, a level that was never met before November 2015, nearly a quarter of the way through the last marketing year.  Total ethanol production so far this marketing year is 5 percent ahead of the same period last year, and on a calendar year basis, the weekly average production of ethanol is more than 1.047 million barrels per day, which on an annualized basis would result in 16.05 billion gallons.   

The original RFS included a cap of 15 billion gallons on corn ethanol.

“The original RFS also included what was believed to be a workable ‘off ramp’ provision for times of economic crisis,” Brown noted.  “That provision was ignored on two major occasions, in 2012 during the worst drought in more than 50 years, and in 2008, the first year that expanded ethanol mandates were foisted on the market and drove corn prices to historic record highs.   One record corn crop did not make the structural problems with the RFS go away.  As always, America’s chicken producers – and American consumers – are only one drought, freeze or flood away from another economic crisis.

“The RFS cannot continue to be selectively implemented,” Brown continued.  “Comprehensive reform is imperative, inevitable and the environment is ripe for it.  On behalf of America’s chicken producers, I congratulate the four horsemen on this issue in the House – Reps. Goodlatte, Costa, Womack and Welch, and the dozens of cosponsors – for proposing this much needed change to America’s misguided biofuel policy.”  

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Address media inquiries to: Tom Super

Senior Vice President of Communications

[email protected] 202-443-4130