News Coverage
Bad Spring Shows US Ethanol Plan Dangerous: Report
Published June 17, 2008
WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) - Cold, rainy spring weather that has stunted the U.S. corn crop ought to force a review of America's "short-sighted and dangerous" biofuels policy, said an environmental group on Monday.
In a report, the Environmental Working Group said demand for corn was rising more rapidly than crop output. The result, it said, is higher prices for food and fuel.
"U.S. policy to promote the production of food crop-based biofuels is both short-sighted and dangerous," said EWG. "We need to step back from our current policies and chart a new course to a more sustainable biofuels policy."
Michelle Perez, the author of the report, said EWG at this point did not favor an immediate end to the so-called renewable fuels standard that calls for production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022.
Corn (maize) is used heavily in livestock rations and also has become the major U.S. feedstock for fuel ethanol. Cellulose, found in grasses, crop debris and wood, is targeted as the feedstock to carry ethanol production above 15 billion gallons a year.
Rain and cool weather has slowed U.S. crops this spring. On Monday, the Agriculture Department said the corn crop was in markedly worse condition than a year ago. Nine percent of the corn land in Iowa, the No 1 corn state, was flooded as of Sunday, and 15 percent of the crop was "poor" or "very poor."
