The Latest on Biofuels
For years the federal government wrongly sent millions in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies to dead farmers – a black eye for subsidy defenders and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now it seems farmers are paying the dead back for all that bad publicity by bulldozing historic prairie cemeteries.
Read More
It’s time to face facts: the biofuels mandate Congress established in 2005 is creating too much bad biofuel and not enough good biofuel. This year, that mandate requires American refiners to use 13.8 billion gallons of corn ethanol – more than they can actually blend into their gasoline. By contrast, fuel makers are expected to generate only a little more than 5 million gallons of non-food-based biofuels that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many doubt whether the industry can hit this target.
Read MoreIn recent years, millions of acres of America’s native grasslands have been plowed under to grow corn for ethanol to blend into gasoline. And new research is clearly pointing to the federal ethanol mandate as a main driver of this tsunami of land conversion in the Midwest.
Read More
Environmental Working Group today welcomed the introduction of legislation to block the use of gasoline containing 15 percent corn ethanol by U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and David Vitter (R-La.), calling it a good first step in addressing concerns about the broader use of higher ethanol blends.
Read MoreThe Environmental Protection Agency’s latest proposal to pump even more corn ethanol into the gasoline supply this year signals the need for a major overhaul of U.S. biofuels policy, said Environmental Working Group’s Vice President for Government Affairs Scott Faber.
Read More
By driving up the price of food and gas and causing costly engine damage, corn ethanol has been bad news for consumers. And by driving up the price of food, corn ethanol is also costing all of us money – by increasing the cost of federal programs like food stamps and school lunches.
Read MoreEnvironmental Working Group (EWG) joined a diverse group of stakeholders today to call on Congress to reform the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) because of its negative impact on the environment, farmers and taxpayers. The RFS requires refiners to blend 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels (i.e. corn ethanol) into the U.S. fuel supply by 2015.
Read MoreA U.S. Appeals Court decision to throw out the 2012 federal mandate requiring refiners to blend cellulosic ethanol into the domestic gasoline supply should be wake-up call to Congress that the nation’s biofuels policy is in sore need of reform, said Environmental Working Group Vice President for Government Affairs Scott Faber.
Read MoreWASHINGTON – The decision by a federal appeals court not to block the sale of gasoline containing 15 percent corn ethanol (known as E15) is a setback for consumers and the environment, says Environmental Working Group vice president for government affairs Scott Faber.
Read MoreLeading environmental and anti-hunger organizations – including Environmental Working Group, Clean Air Task Force and ActionAid USA – said today that the Environmental Protection Agency’s refusal to waive the federal ethanol fuel mandate in response to the worst drought in 50 years is a blow to livestock producers, dairy farmers and consumers alike.
Read MoreCalifornia dairymen are being regularly referred to suicide hotlines as many go broke from rising feed costs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Read MoreIn May 2009, Steve Ruh, who was then chair of the National Corn Growers Association’s Ethanol Committee, called corn ethanol the “most environmentally friendly fuel available today.”
Read More
Corn ethanol boosters held yet another pep rally today (Sept. 27) for a dirty, inefficient fuel that has eliminated jobs, increased the price of food and gas, damaged engines and increased pollution. Yet it has replaced less than 1 percent of world oil.
Read MoreStatement from Environmental Working Group Vice-President for Government Affairs Scott Faber on today’s DC circuit court rejection of multiple challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s allowance of E15 (15% ethanol blend) into the commercial marketplace. "If gasoline was blended to include 15% ethanol during the current drought, two-thirds or more of the corn crop could be diverted from food and feed to U. S. fuel supplies.
Read MoreHigh crop prices and unlimited crop insurance subsidies contributed to the loss of more than 23 million acres of grassland, shrub land and wetlands between 2008 and 2011, wiping out habitat that sustains many species of birds and other animals and threatening the diversity of North America’s wildlife, new research by Environmental Working Group and Defenders of Wildlife shows.
Read MoreEWG and other environmental groups sent lawmakers a letter today (April 19) opposing the Domestic Fuels Protection Act of 2012 (H.R. 4345) and its companion, the Domestic Fuels Act of 2012 (S. 2264). The bill would provide a broad exemption from legal liability to fuel producers, engine manufacturers and retailers of virtually all transportation fuels and fuel additives – including gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol, or E15.
Read MoreThe Domestic Fuels Protection Act of 2012 (H.R. 4345) and its companion bill, the Domestic Fuels Act of 2012 (S.2264) would create a broad exemption from liability for a number of favored interests: fuel producers, engine manufacturers and retailers of virtually all transportation fuels and fuel additives such as gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol, or E15.
Read More“You learn something every day if you pay attention.” ~Ray LeBlond
And that happened this morning, when in an online dialogue, a farming friend popped in, talking about his trip to DC for the “Corn Congress.”
“What’s a ‘Corn Congress’?” I asked, never having heard the term.
Read MorePages
