{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140131154715/http://goodlatte.house.gov/press_releases/475", "GOODLATTE TESTIFIES AT EPA HEARING ON ETHANOL MANDATE", "2013-12-05", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "VA", "Robert Goodlatte", "G000289", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "GOODLATTE TESTIFIES AT EPA HEARING ON ETHANOL MANDATE \n                      \n                      \tWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Congressman Bob Goodlatte testified today at the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) hearing on the proposed volume requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for calendar year 2014.\u00a0 Congressman Goodlatte was joined by Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT) who also supports reform of the RFS.\u00a0 Congressmen Goodlatte and Welch, along with Congressmen Jim Costa (D-CA) and Steve Womack (R-AR), recently led a letter signed by 169 Members of the House of Representatives to the EPA Administrator requesting a reduction of RFS levels.  Congressman Goodlatte\u2019s full testimony, as prepared, is below: It is my pleasure to join you all today. \u00a0 Since the Renewable Fuel Standard was dramatically expanded in 2007, we saw, almost immediately, the market distorting effects of the RFS on our economy. \u00a0 EPA has the tools to ease this market distortion fueled by the RFS.\u00a0 Members of Congress have asked several times for EPA to use your authority to lower the RFS.\u00a0 Last year we experienced one of the worst droughts in our nation\u2019s history, severely impacting the corn supply.\u00a0 Livestock and food producers were confronted with corn prices as high as $8 a bushel due to the drought and requirements of the RFS.\u00a0 Last year livestock producers were not just left with the concern of price, but also legitimate concerns over having enough corn to feed their animals and fear that livestock herds would shrink.\u00a0 EPA partially acknowledged these concerns.\u00a0 In response to the waiver request, EPA\u2019s own analysis said that a waiver last year would have provided relief of over $80 million to the pork industry in Virginia and North Carolina. Yet action was not taken. This year we are grateful to not be experiencing a drought that compounds the market distorting effect of the RFS, but we are still confronted with the detrimental effects of the RFS.\u00a0 The imposition of the 2014 volumes now threatens to cause economic and environmental harm. Perhaps the newest challenge would be the imposition of the statutory requirement of 18.15 billion gallons of renewable fuels in 2014, of which approximately 14.4 billion gallons will be made up by corn ethanol.\u00a0 In particular, the combination of rising ethanol mandates and declining gasoline demand has exacerbated the onset of the E10 blendwall \u2013 the point at which the gasoline supply is saturated with the maximum amount of ethanol that current vehicles, engines, and infrastructure can safely accommodate. I was pleased to join Peter Welch, and our colleagues Jim Costa and Steve Womack, to lead a letter with 165 of our colleagues asking the EPA to lower the RFS mandate.\u00a0 Despite our frustration that EPA has failed to recognize the detrimental effects of the RFS in the past, we appreciate that EPA has proposed a slight reduction of the RFS for 2014.\u00a0 While this is an acknowledgement that the mandate is unworkable, it is not enough to provide the much-needed relief businesses, farmers, and consumers need. The RFS is clearly unworkable.\u00a0 The mandate drastically manipulates the corn marketplace and increases commodity and food costs across the supply chain.\u00a0 Under the RFS, the federal government is essentially telling a private industry that they must buy one product, ignoring other groups who also depend on that product and creating an artificial supply-and-demand.\u00a0 The RFS is the federal government disrupting the marketplace by putting its heavy thumb on one side of the scale \u2013 tipping it in favor of one side over the other.\u00a0 In the debate over ethanol, the government is picking winners and losers.\u00a0 I urge the EPA to use your authority to provide the maximum relief possible. While it is imperative that EPA provide the maximum relief possible, we must recognize that any band-aid relief that EPA may provide does not fix this broken policy.\u00a0 The volatility that the RFS has imposed on our economy needs fundamental reform.\u00a0\u00a0 Congress created this artificial market that is distorting the food and feed market, and Congress must provide relief from its unintended consequences. \u00a0  \n                      \t\u00a0 \u00a0  \n                      \tEvery one of my constituents, every American has felt the additional cost of the RFS.\u00a0 Every cattle producer who faces higher feed costs, every family who shops in a grocery store or dines at a restaurant, and every motorist who fills up their tank at the gas station pays the price of this unworkable policy.\u00a0 I look forward to working with you to ease the effects of the RFS for these everyday hardworking Americans.\u00a0 Again, thank you for the opportunity to be here today.\n                      \n                      \t###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140131154715/http://goodlatte.house.gov/press_releases/475"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8653090335428715, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}