EPA chief indicates ethanol mandate will be higher | Food and Environment Reporting Network

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy says the recent upturn in gasoline consumption will be reflected in the ethanol mandate for this year, which should be announced in coming weeks. “You will see the rule coming out with changed numbers as a result,” she told the National Farmers Union fly-in. EPA proposed a relaxation of the so-called Renewable Fuels Standard on grounds that U.S. fuel consumption was lower than expected, so it was becoming impossible for oil companies to meet the targets set by law for ethanol use.

The target for corn-based ethanol would be about 13 billion gallons under the proposal EPA unveiled last fall. That would be roughly the same as production in 2012 and 2013 and below the 14.4 billion-gallon target in the 2007 energy law.

Doug Peterson, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union said “we cannot afford in farm country” to see concessions to oil companies. A bushel of corn makes 2.8 gallons of ethanol, so a lower ethanol mandate could reduce corn sales. Some 37 percent of the record 2013 corn crop will be used for making ethanol. There are 210 ethanol plants with an annual capacity of 14.9 billion gallons a year.