Ethanol Reform: eliminate mandates or cap requirements?

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Federal legislators in Washington, D.C. seem to agree the Renewable Fuel Standard needs to be reformed, as demonstrated by a pair of bills currently circulating in both houses of Congress. The specifics of how the standard should be amended, however, still need to be fleshed out. Ethanol reform has yet to fall victim to legislative gridlock defining, but it is evident representatives and senators are pursuing different avenues to amend the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which, according to the Senate bill, mandates annually increasing consumption of corn for fuel. The Log reported in February of a bill (HR 704) introduced in the House of Representatives to end ethanol blending mandates and cap levels of biofuel use. Three weeks after HR 704 was introduced, senators from Arizona, California, Maine and Pennsylvania introduced S 577 in the upper house, proposing to eliminate ethanol mandates. However, the proposal does not regulate ethanol levels used in motor fuel. The Senate bill, which was reportedly introduced Feb. 26, proposes only to eliminate the ethanol mandate from the RFS and Clean Air Act. No amendments are proposed to alter how the Clean Air Act regulates ethanol volume used in motor fuel. Only four senators co-sponsored the Corn Ethanol...