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NASDA Refutes Request to Waive Ethanol Standard
USAgNet - 06/18/2008

The leading state agriculture officials of the United States have countered a request by the governor of Texas that the Environmental Protection Agency waive half of the federal renewable fuels standard, mandating the production of ethanol from grain.

"The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture strongly supports the Renewable Fuels Standard as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007," said Roger Johnson, North Dakota agriculture commissioner and NASDA president, in written comments to the EPA. "The standard is an important part of our domestic energy policy, and agriculture plays a significant role in meeting the standard."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked the EPA in April to relax the ethanol mandate, claiming it was driving up world food prices and hurting Texas' economy. The mandate requires the U.S. use 9 billion gallons of renewable fuels this year and 11 billion gallons in 2009.

"The rise in food prices in this country and around the world is due to many factors including historically high energy prices, weather-related events and growing global demand," Johnson said. "It would be unwise to halt a domestic energy policy aimed at increasing the production and use of domestic renewable fuels. Such an action would be short-sighted and do little to ease the prices paid at the supermarket and would undoubtedly increase the prices that consumers are paying at the gas pump."

Johnson said Perry should consult researchers, including those at Texas A&M University, who have concluded that the rise in corn prices has little to do with food costs.

Simultaneously, Iowa State University researchers released a study showing that ethanol production is helping lower gasoline prices around the country. The study showed growth in ethanol production has caused retail gasoline prices to be 29 to 40 cents less per gallon than would otherwise have been the case.