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Environmental Working Group & Friends Call for RFS Reform

In an event convened by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an unlikely coalition of voices came together to discuss the mass deforestation, volatile food prices and the dangerous, costly fuel being forced upon Americans by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

On Thursday, April 10, several diverse voices—including chain restaurants and environmentalists—participated in a panel with The Hill Magazine to discuss why the need to reform the government’s ethanol mandate is at critical mass.

A Coalition Against Bad Policy

Oil refiners do oppose the ethanol mandate, but they are hardly the only ones who take issue with the policy. Environmentalists, taxpayers, food producers, consumer protection groups of all types, anti-hunger advocates and even farmers have all spoken out against the RFS.

On Wednesday, Dec. 4, a diverse group of stakeholders held a press call to discuss the EPA’s proposed reduction to 2014 biofuel blending requirements, as well as their individual policy objectives, as they seek to limit the various negative impacts of the RFS.

Government mandates are set to cost consumers billions in 2014, and not just in health care, according to Bloomberg News. The Renewable Fuel Standard requires refiners to mix ethanol into gasoline for consumers' cars and trucks.

Refining industry executives and restaurant owners are set to meet with lawmakers on Wednesday in a bid to convince them to scrap an eight-year-old renewable fuel mandate.

This week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held an extensive hearing on the effects of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Over the course of two days and three panels, diverse stakeholders testified on the many pitfalls of the ethanol mandates.

Comments on Impacts of RFS

The House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce is issuing a series of white papers as the first step in reviewing the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Each white paper poses a series of questions on the pitfalls of the RFS to stakeholders in affected sectors. Read the comments on the white papers:

The RFS mandate affects the prices of two of America’s (and the world’s) most vital commodities—food and fuel. In 2011, 40 percent of the nation’s corn crop was processed into biofuel, rather than food and livestock feed.

Ethanol giants will sell a 6 billion gallons of their product, not because Americans want it, but because Uncle Sam says so. To meet the increasing — and artificial — demand, farmers must shift production away from crops that put food on the table or feed livestock. This comes at a cost.

Diners may have to pay more for their favorite chain restaurant meal in the coming years because of billions of dollars in extra costs generated by a federal mandate requiring ethanol to be be blended into the country’s gasoline supply, according to a new study.

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