Is the ethanol mandate the most broken policy in America?

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The ethanol mandate affects us all

A snowmobiler, a conservationist and a chicken farmer walk into the EPA. Unfortunately for the ethanol lobby, this one doesn’t end with a punchline. It’s a typical day in the fight to reform ethanol mandates, a policy broken in so many different ways that people who don’t agree on much are finding common ground.

Scroll down to learn more about the kinds of people who are calling for reform and see the logos below to get to know our partners.

Consumer & Taxpayer Advocates

The unworkable nature of the ethanol mandate is a raw deal for consumers, risking higher gas prices, lower fuel economy and warranty-voiding engine damage.

Ethanol is a highly corrosive product that can cause damage in most engines when used in concentrations higher than 10 percent. That’s why gasoline containing 10 percent ethanol (E10) is the only fuel blend approved by the EPA for use in all vehicles, motorcycles, boats and power equipment. Higher ethanol blends can cause a litany of problems for engines not designed to run on the fuel, including unintentional clutch engagement, rubber swelling and metal corrosion. Even worse: many auto warranties will not cover damage from the use of higher ethanol blends, leaving consumers out of luck.

And that’s not all–because ethanol contains a third less energy than regular gasoline, gallon-for-gallon, ethanol in your tank means more trips to the pump. In 2011, ethanol’s energy shortcomings added about 10 cents per gallon to the cost of U.S. gasoline.

“So far, [ethanol mandates have] only succeeded in distorting markets and propping up the ethanol industry at the expense of refiners, retailers, motorists and taxpayers. It’s time Big Ethanol gave up its special treatment and played fair.”

– Nan Swift, National Taxpayers Union

“90 percent of vehicles today, including most 2001 to 2013 models, cannot handle higher blends without risking problems like corrosion and rubber swelling. These blends also threaten all motorcycles, heavy-duty and off-road vehicles, boats, power equipment components and lawn mowers.”

– American Motorcyclist Association

“Consumers remain at high risk. We have serious, well-documented and data-driven concerns with the safety of high ethanol fuel blends which have been proven to cause damage to marine engines.”

– National Marine Manufacturers Association

Oil Refiners

Ethanol mandates require refiners to blend impossible amounts of ethanol into gasoline — amounts that the current gasoline supply cannot safely accommodate. Yet, if refiners do not somehow meet their targets, the agency can fine them up to $32,500 per day for non-compliance.

In order to comply with the government, refiners may soon be forced to put an amount of ethanol into fuel that could damage up to 90 percent of cars on the road today, or risk spikes in gas prices – a point known as “hitting the blend wall.”

“The U.S. is dangerously close to exceeding the amount of ethanol that can be safely blended into our gasoline supply…refiners find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They must either blend unsafe amounts of ethanol into U.S. gasoline or buy costly compliance credits that could threaten to raise gas prices, put them out of business and risk thousands of jobs.”

American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers

Food Producers

Ethanol mandates increase the price of corn — a staple ingredient in 75 percent of all grocery items — leading to higher food prices for restaurants and consumers alike.

What’s more, corn makes up more than 95 percent of all U.S. animal feed, which means that as ethanol mandates raise corn prices, livestock farmers have to cope with higher feed prices. This has led to higher prices of food items like meat and dairy as well as the closing of more than 60,000 pork, poultry, and beef operations since 2007.

“The cost of corn to feed cattle is a huge part of why dairy farms have closed.”

– Michael Marsh, Western United Dairymen

“[The ethanol mandate] has been devastating to us financially.”

– Lucas Deniz, Deniz Dairy, Petaluma, California

“If Congress does not find a way to fix this policy, it will continue to hurt small farms like mine.”

– Jim Wood, Palmetto Creek Farms

“The 2015 ethanol mandate is estimated to increase total costs for chain restaurants by $3.2 billion.”

– National Council of Chain Restaurants

Anti-Hunger Activists

America is the world’s top corn producer and third biggest exporter; therefore, a rise in U.S.corn prices brought on by ethanol mandates, which convert large amounts of corn into fuel instead of food, increases the cost of food globally, disproportionately hurting the poorest among us at home and abroad.

Foreign and domestic food assistance programs — like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), child nutrition programs and international food aid — become more expensive and less effective due to rising food prices.

“From 2006 to 2011, ethanol-related corn price increases cost all corn-importing countries $11.6 billion. Developing nations bore around 57 percent of the burden, or $6.6 billion. “

– ActionAid

“One year’s worth of U.S.-produced ethanol uses enough corn to feed 570 million people — more than half the population of Africa. “

– New England Complex Systems Institute

“Biofuels policies around the world have helped encourage large-scale land acquisition in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, displacing small landholders and contributing to food price increases.”

– United Nations

“Thanks to [ethanol mandates], in 2011 the U.S. transformed 40 percent of its corn crop into fuel instead of food or animal feed.”

– FarmEcon LLC

Environmentalists & Conservationists

Supporters of ethanol mandates claim that growing corn for fuel helps the environment. But if that’s true, why are numerous environmental and conservation groups, academics, and scientists calling for reform? Study after study has proven that ethanol mandates are not only not helping the environment, they are making things worse–plowing over conservation land for cornfields, polluting waterways, and actually increasing emissions.

“Few anticipated that the ethanol mandate would drive up the price of corn so much that farmers would plow up more than 8 million acres of wetlands and grasslands in order to make more money selling corn. That conversion of uncultivated land to grow corn has been releasing between 85 million and 236 million metric tons of carbon a year.”

– Environmental Working Group

“Biofuels worsen global warming at every stage.”

– Friends of the Earth

“It’s time that we began implementing policies that make sense for our planet and people. Every day that we fail to act, our waterways and lands become more polluted and families go hungry. Congress must now step up and reform the RFS [ethanol mandates] once and for all. Only then will our nation be on track to a truly sustainable future.”

– Joint Op-ed from Friends of the Earth and ActionAid USA

“Biofuels are not a green alternative to fossil fuels.”

– World Resources Institute

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