Ethanol groups to Congress: Try not to 'out-guess' markets

Now the ethanol groups fight back over demands that the ethanol mandate be eased back or stopped altogether due to the huge corn crop loss from the worst drought in over 50 years in the corn belt..........something will have to be done about this, and soon - or we may again face World food shortages - in large part due to ethanol gasoline and unfavorable climate conditions!

"Pete"
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Ethanol groups to Congress: Try not to 'out-guess' markets

By Zack Colman - 08/02/12 03:13 PM ET
  
A pair of ethanol industry trade groups on Thursday accused lawmakers and livestock groups of spreading misinformation to kill a rule that promotes corn ethanol production. 
Some lawmakers critical of ethanol have called for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) renewable fuel standard (RFS) to be waived because of drought conditions lowering the corn harvest and raising prices. 
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers held a press conference earlier Thursday urging EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to waive the standard. They said the EPA can waive the RFS in whole or in part when complying with the rule causes severe economic or environmental harm.
But Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen said the rule should only be waived when ethanol refiners say they cannot meet the rule’s production targets. He added that this won't happen this year. 
“The bottom line is this — the RFS is about refiners being able to meet their obligations,” Dinneen said. “Refiners can meet their obligations because of the flexibility built into this program.”
The RFS calls for a certain amount of corn ethanol to be blended into traditional transportation fuel each year. Dinneen said the original mark for 2012 was 13.2 billion gallons, but EPA has revised that downward to 13 billion gallons in response to decreased overall demand for gasoline. 
Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis said he's never heard a "bigger whopper" in Washington than the argument that the RFS is hurting food supplies.  
In a response to a question from E2-Wire, he said Congress should not try to “out-guess” the market by calling for an RFS waiver. Crop yields could rebound to drive prices back down like they did in 2008, which was when Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) asked for an RFS waiver for economic reasons, he said. EPA denied Perry’s request.
“We’re in that crazy part of the year,” Guis said of corn prices. “It’s kind of the silly season on speculation at this point.”
Dinneen and Buis cautioned lawmakers and the EPA about acting prematurely on the RFS. They said ethanol producers already are curtailing production in response to the high prices. And in previous years, ethanol refiners had overproduced corn ethanol, leaving about 800 million gallons sitting in stocks and 2.5 billion gallons worth of credits that refiners can use