releases: https://web.archive.org/web/20140131154715/http://goodlatte.house.gov/press_releases/475
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| 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 | legacy | GOODLATTE TESTIFIES AT EPA HEARING ON ETHANOL MANDATE WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Bob Goodlatte testified today at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) hearing on the proposed volume requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for calendar year 2014. Congressman Goodlatte was joined by Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT) who also supports reform of the RFS. 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’s full testimony, as prepared, is below: It is my pleasure to join you all today. Since the Renewable Fuel Standard was dramatically expanded in 2007, we saw, almost immediately, the market distorting effects of the RFS on our economy. EPA has the tools to ease this market distortion fueled by the RFS. Members of Congress have asked several times for EPA to use your authority to lower the RFS. Last year we experienced one of the worst droughts in our nation’s history, severely impacting the corn supply. Livestock and food producers were confronted with corn prices as high as $8 a bushel due to the drought and requirements of the RFS. 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. EPA partially acknowledged these concerns. In response to the waiver request, EPA’s 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. 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. In particular, the combination of rising ethanol mandates and declining gasoline demand has exacerbated the onset of the E10 blendwall – 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. 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. 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. The mandate drastically manipulates the corn marketplace and increases commodity and food costs across the supply chain. 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. The RFS is the federal government disrupting the marketplace by putting its heavy thumb on one side of the scale – tipping it in favor of one side over the other. In the debate over ethanol, the government is picking winners and losers. 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. The volatility that the RFS has imposed on our economy needs fundamental reform. Congress created this artificial market that is distorting the food and feed market, and Congress must provide relief from its unintended consequences. Every one of my constituents, every American has felt the additional cost of the RFS. 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. I look forward to working with you to ease the effects of the RFS for these everyday hardworking Americans. Again, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |