Portions of the Renewable Fuels Standard that effectively mandate the use of corn-based ethanol would be repealed under a bill introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Jeff Flake of Arizona. The proposal is similar to an amendment they filed in January as part of debate on the Keystone pipeline. It never was called for a vote. Toomey and Flake said the ethanol mandate is an example of corporate welfare. Feinstein said the mandate indirectly drives up food prices.
A similar bill to end the corn ethanol mandate was filed in the House in early February. Sponsor Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, a former House Agriculture Committee chairman, also filed a bill to eliminate the Renewable Fuels Act.
Within hours, the ethanol industry slapped back at the Senate bill, calling it misguided and out of date in light of back-to-back record corn crops and a steep decline in corn prices. Bob Dinneen of the Renewable Fuels Association told reporters, “I think it’s highly unlikely” the Senate bill would pass, but said it was important to rebut criticism of biofuels nonetheless.
The USDA is nearly finished with its update of a program that pays up to $25 million a year to plant, harvest and transport biomass crops to bio-energy plants, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at an ethanol conference in Phoenix. The final rule is to appear in the Federal Register today, with comments accepted until April 28 and resumption of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program set for May 28. The money is available to farmers and forest owners. BCAP is intended to aid development of biofuels and renewable products from nonfood sources. Vilsack also said $8.7 million was available for bio-energy research.
The Federal Register notice for BCAP is available here.
The USDA also published an interim rule for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and set a 60-day comment period on it. The easement program was created in 2014 through a combination of three previous programs: the Wetlands Reserve, Grasslands Reserve and the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program.