Nebraska Corn Urges Farmers to Submit Comments on EPA Ethanol-Reduction Proposal

The Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Corn Growers Association are issuing an urgent call to action to Nebraska farmers to once again get vocal about recent action by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that would reduce the nation's commitment to renewable fuels.

Nebraska Corn strongly encourages Nebraska farmers to submit comments to the EPA expressing their displeasure with the proposed renewable fuels reduction. 

A portal has been established on the Nebraska Corn Board website and the Nebraska CornGrowers Association website, under the icon “Don’t Mess with the RFS.”  This icon links directly to a comment submission form and suggested verbiage on the National Corn Growers Association’s website.

The comment period will close on Monday, July 27, 2015.   

In a statement, Nebraska Corn leaders expressed great disappointment and concern regarding the recent proposal from the EPA to slash the required amount of conventional biofuels in the nation's fuel supply for 2015 and 2016. EPA proposes to adjust the conventional biofuel requirement that is mandated in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) passed by Congress, downward by nearly 2.6 billion gallons.

"Agriculture was once again placed in an unstable position by EPA when they released their long overdue RFS proposal," said Tim Scheer, farmer from St. Paul, Nebraska and Chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board. "It is absolutely imperative that farmers get engaged in the comment period if we have any prayer of getting EPA to increase the proposed figures to the original congressional statue of 15 billion gallons for 2015 and 2016. All the work and investment that Nebraska corn farmers have put into building the ethanol industry is at risk. We've already seen corn prices drift downward to the cost of production."


Nebraska Corn Growers Association President, Larry Mussack of Decatur, Nebraska added, "This proposal plays right into the hands of the oil industry, which has been pulling out all the stops to prevent loss of market share to renewable fuels such as ethanol. American farmers and consumers were promised the opportunity to utilize an American-made, cleaner, renewable alternative to oil. This proposal not only ignores that agreement, but diminishes the cost-saving options that American Ethanol provides in the marketplace for consumers.”