EPA seeks input on ethanol mandate waiver requests

Do hope all readers had a GREAT weekend.  College football is just 12 days away folks!  LSU's first game is on Saturday, August 31st in "Death Valley"!  Glad the first 3 games will be at home, even they're against rather weak opponents, except Washington, so it will give the team a chance to get their timing down.  Folks, I've seen videos and read reports of some who have seen some of the practice sessions, and new QB Zack Mettenburger is the "REAL DEAL".   The offense loves him and he has apparently earned the team's respect as their leader, a role which he said he relishes.  He has an arm like a "rocket" as quoted by a couple of his receivers.  In one video I saw him throw, with a very quick "flick of the wrist" a 65 yard pass and hit the receiver on the numbers.  His passing is VERY accurate per his receivers.   His receivers have given themselves a nickname..........."The Fab Five"!  For the first time in nearly 5 years, LSU finally has a QB!  It's a shame Les Miles didn't let him play more last year.........but, his time is NOW!

The EPA today put out a notice that they will post a request for comments in the Federal Register (as required by law) on the request for waivers on their "Ethanol Mandate".  Several State Governors have petitioned for a waiver and the list is growing.  Below is one of several articles I've read on this subject today.  Maybe, just maybe, their may be a ray of hope in scaling back this terrible mandate to hopefully stop the runaway price increased in food costs?  Making ethanol for gas with food is NOT a very smart idea to begin with.

"Pete"
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EPA seeks input on ethanol mandate waiver requests                                        Reuters - 6:11 p.m. CDT, August 20, 2012


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday said it has begun weighing requests to suspend the U.S. ethanol mandate, which requires refiners to blend ethanol into gasoline, and is seeking public feedback.

The governors of North Carolina and Arkansas asked the agency last week to temporarily waive the U.S. quota on ethanol made from corn, because the worst drought in 50 years has driven corn prices higher and hurt livestock producers who depend on the grain for feed.
The EPA asked on Monday for public comment on the need for an ethanol waiver. The 30-day comment period will begin once the notice is published in the Federal Register.

"This notice is in keeping with EPA's commitment to an open and transparent process to evaluate requests the agency receives under the Clean Air Act, and does not indicate any predisposition to a specific decision," agency spokeswoman Alisha Johnson said in a statement.

By law the agency has until November 13 to make a decision on the waivers, meaning EPA could act on the requests after national elections on November 6.

Aimed at reducing U.S. reliance on foreign oil, the Renewable Fuels Standard, or RFS, would require 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol to be made from corn this year.

The EPA is seeking input on whether the RFS would severely hurt the economies of Arkansas, North Carolina or any other part of the United States and what effect a waiver would have on ethanol demand and corn prices.

The agency is also asking, if a waiver is needed, how much should the mandate be eased and when should it apply.

A petition by Texas Governor Rick Perry in 2008 was rejected when the agency said waiver requests had to show the mandate itself was severely harming a region's economy and not just contributing to economic damage.

U.S. livestock groups have argued that complying with the mandate at a time of historic national drought is causing major economic harm to meat and dairy producers.

It is unclear that a waiver would weaken corn prices. Refiners will likely continue buying almost as much ethanol even without the mandate since they use it as an additive to make cleaner-burning fuel required in much of the country.

Ethanol industry groups say the mandate offers some flexibility for fuel blenders responsible for complying with the RFS, including the ability to buy bankable credits if blenders cannot buy enough physical ethanol to meet requirements.

(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Gary Hill and Jim Marshall)

Court dismisses challenge to EPA's introduction of E15

WOW, what a wet and soggy weekend.  I don't know how widespread the rain was in Louisiana, but in LaPlace we had 8 inches in 3 days!  Thought I'd have to take my boat out of my boat shed to use it at one point..........

Well, a US Appeals Court in Washington D.C. dealt a blow to all litigants in lawsuits asking the courts to stop the 15% ethanol to allow auto manufacturers to complete their long term testing.  The court by a 2-1 margin dismissed the lawsuits.  I've read about 15 articles on this from many different papers, but none indicated if the dismissal will be challenged in a higher court or not.  If it is not challenged to a higher court, we may be stuck with E15!  However, the one thing on consumers side, that is if you oppose E15 and the way EPA approved it in "partial waivers", is that auto makers have warned customers in their owners manuals and even on gas caps of some newer cars NOT TO USE GAS WITH GREATER THAN 10% ETHANOL, and, if they do, and their engine is damaged, their WARRANTY WILL BE VOID!  And, this includes 2001 and newer cars and light trucks that the EPA said it is safe to use E15 in!  Retailer stores that sell gas are also opposed to it and many have said they will not sell it even if offered (it is OPTIONAL for retailers to sell it).......their biggest concern is the potential liability involved.  So the "saga" continues...........all I have to say about E15 is SELLER AND BUYER BEWARE!  As far as my study shows, the ONLY vehicles that can use this new fuel safely are the vehicles which bear the "FLEX" decal........these vehicles were designed with different fuel pumps, fuel lines, injectors and other components to attempt to reduce the corrosion from the higher ethanol blends.  And, of course, the added cost to manufacture these autos were subsidied by us the taxpayers through government tax credits to the auto manufacturers!   E15 should NOT be used in anything else.....PERIOD!  It is most CRITICAL that it NOT BE USED in marine engines, motorcycles, jet skis, 4 wheelers, chain saws, home generators, and all gas powered lawn and garden tools, PLUS any vehicle that is not a FLEX vehicle.  It will destroy these engines (proven by tests) and warranties will NOT cover damages!  I have an article on this E15 issue on the "Articles" page of my website.

HAVE A GREAT MONDAY READERS!  

"Pete"
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Court dismisses challenge to EPA's introduction of E15

WASHINGTON, DC, Aug. 17

08/17/2012

By Nick Snow - OGJ Washington Editor

A federal appeals court dismissed a legal challenge to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s introduction of gasoline with a higher ethanol blend into the marketplace. The three-judge US Appeals Court for the District of Columbia ruled 2-1 that the petroleum industry and two other groups did not have legal standing in the matter.

The attempt by refiners and product importers to draw a causal link between the waivers they challenge and costs they would incur introducing the 85% gasoline-15% ethanol blend (E15) “ultimately rings hollow,” the Aug. 17 decision said.

“If anything is ‘forcing’ these entities to incur the costs of introducing a new fuel, it is the obligations set by the [federal Renewable Fuel Standard], competitive pressures, or some combination thereof,” it continued. “EPA’s partial waivers simply provide a new choice of fuel for manufacturers to produce. There is not a cause of these costs providing the petroleum group with standing.”

It also denied standing to engine manufacturers, who warned that introducing E15 could harm their products, and food businesses which produce, market, and distributed products requiring corn.

Officials from the American Petroleum Institute and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers immediately criticized the ruling.

“AFPM members want to ensure that all fuels sold into commerce are safe for consumers, effective and reliable, but today's decision confounds our ability to do so,” said Charles T. Drevna, the association’s president.

“Vehicle testing has confirmed that E15 damages certain engines,” he continued. “In fact, vehicle manufacturers have begun to include warnings on their gas caps that E15 could void vehicle warranties. This decision will harm every American who owns a car, truck, or small engine equipment.”

API Downstream Director Bob Greco separately said that it was astounding the court found that refiners, who must comply with the federal ethanol mandate contained in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, don’t have legal standing.

“EPA approved E15 before vehicle testing was complete, and we now know that the fuel may cause significant mechanical problems in millions of cars on the road today,” he said.

Contact Nick Snow at nicks@pennwell.com.

EPA is pressured to drop ethanol mandate while drought drives corn prices up

More State Governors are demanding that the EPA stop the ethanol mandate, at least until corn crops recover.........probably not until next year.  Even the United Nations is putting pressure on Obama to stop the ethanol.  The US has in past years been a major corn exporter, which is essential to feed poor countries.  With the large crop loss this year, unless the ethanol mandate is stopped, there is real concern there will again be food riots across the World, and even possibly in the U.S.

"Pete"
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EPA is pressured to drop ethanol mandate while drought drives corn prices up
By Doug McKelway
Published August 16, 2012
FoxNews.com

With record drought destroying crops across the country, corn prices are skyrocketing, and that is causing a world-wide ripple effect, including on the cost of the corn-derived gasoline additive ethanol.
Corn prices are up 60 percent this summer, Christopher Hurt, a Purdue University economic professor, estimates. And now Democratic governors from Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina and Arkansas have joined ranchers, poultry farmers and the United Nations director-general for food and agriculture in asking the Environmental Protection Agency to waive the federal requirement that gasoline contain 10 percent ethanol.

"It's universally acknowledged that ethanol is raising the price of food," Kenneth Green of the American Enterprise Institute said. "It's not lowering the price of gas. In fact, it may be raising the price of gas, and it's having a devastating environmental effect in terms of coastal pollution."
Green says coastal "dead zones" may be increasing because of the run-off from fertilizer-intensive corn crops. But the human economic costs are potentially more severe.
The Department of Agriculture estimates that food inflation will hit 3 percent to 3.5 percent this year, then 3 percent to 4 percent next year. The U.S. is the world's largest food exporter. For the poorest countries dependent on U.S. exports of corn, the impact may cost lives.
The Obama administration, however, hasn't acted to waive the ethanol mandate.
"What I can tell you is that the EPA has made it clear that they are working closely with the Department of Agriculture to keep an eye on yields," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Friday. "They will evaluate all the relevant information when assessing that situation."
More recently, when asked about the president's commitment to ethanol, Deputy White House Communications Director Jen Psaki said, "He absolutely believes in it. He thinks it's a driver of the economy here and a key component of renewable energy."
Indeed, ethanol mandates have won favor in the corn belt -- where corn prices and profits have set records in recent years. As evidence of that, more corn now goes to the production of ethanol than to the production of food and cattle and poultry feed. Many of those same corn belt states, including Iowa, Ohio, and Michigan, happen to be key swing states in the upcoming presidential election.

Even if there were political will to challenge the mandates, the ethanol industry has now become an entrenched player in Washington.
"Once it's entrenched, you have a locked-in lobby that won't let you pry it out," Green said. "No matter that your environmental groups have walked away from it, international groups have walked away from it. Everybody has acknowledged it's bad public policy, but it's dug in like a tick."

U.S. use of corn for ethanol is high but hyped:

The role of corn's future in continued debate.  Here's an article from Reuters on that issue.  The pressure continues to grow on the Obama administration to either reduce or put a complete hold on the ethanol mandate at least until corn inventories are restored.  The incredible drought in the corn growing states continues unabated.  Before it's all said and done, it is very possible that at least 50% or more of this year's corn crop will be lost.  New figures from the US Department of Agriculture should be out soon...........

"Pete"
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COLUMN-U.S. use of corn for ethanol is high but hyped: Wynn

 Energy »
Wed Aug 8, 2012 10:43am EDT
(The author is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.)
By Gerard Wynn

Aug 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. ethanol industry is right to complain that its consumption of corn is routinely exaggerated, by opponents of biofuel and in wider commentary, but it still consumes enough to make a minimum blending mandate look vulnerable.

A U.S. drought and shrinking corn yields have thrown a focus once more on the role of biofuels, four years after a rise in grain prices led to a food-versus-fuel debate and riots in developing countries.

(Read entire article here:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/08/column-wynn-ethanol-corn-idUSL6E8J65JU20120808

Obama’s Big Bacon Bailout

I think you may find this article very interesting.  Obama's solution to the severe damage to the US corn crop due to the worst drought in over 50 years...........I don't think it takes a "rocket scientist" to figure out that this plan is NOT THE ANSWER and will only make the problem worse.

Instead what his administration needs to do is SUSPEND the ethanol fuel mandate so corn will be available for meat, hog, poultry and other meat producing farmers.  This "Big Bacon Bailout" does absolutely NOTHING to help these farmers AND, make more corn available for food products.  This is shameful!  Total "lack of leadership".  Consumers will be left to "eat ethanol" since there may not be enough corn to manufacture the hundreds of products made from corn.

"Pete"
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Obama’s Big Bacon Bailout
August 14, 2012 | 11:05 am 
Charlie Spiering  The Washington Examiner

Standing in front of a field of shriveled ears of corn, President Obama  unveiled a government plan to help out farmers and livestock producers.
The federal government, he declared, was prepared to spend up to $170 million dollars on meat, thanks to his executive directive.

“We’re not just talking about a few strips of bacon here,” the President insisted.  “It turns out that the federal government buys a lot of meat for military bases, hospitals, colleges, food banks and cafeterias, and because of the drought, there are a lot of folks out there that are trying to sell meat right now.”

Up to a million dollars will be used to buy pork products.
As I noted yesterday, livestock producers are suffering due to a corn shortage, due to the drought hitting the Midwest this summer. That puts livestock producers in a tight spot, due to the high cost of feed.
But they are in even more trouble, thanks to an ethanol mandate requiring that 13.2 billion gallons of corn starch-derived biofuel be produced in 2012. Forty percent of the nation’s corn crop now goes to ethanol producers, compared with 36 percent for feed.

With high feed costs, livestock producers are forced to slaughter their herds, rather than spending the money on expensive corn to keep them alive. If you have a freezer, now would be the time to fill it, as the cost meat is expected to drop at the expense of livestock producers.
Thanks to the president’s “meat plan,” however, the government plan will prop up the price of meat in order to help producers rather than relaxing the ethanol mandates. “We’ll freeze it for later — but we’ve got a lot of freezers,” Obama explained in Iowa.

But while Obama’s “meat plan” will absorb the meat surplus in 2012, the cost of meat will skyrocket in 2013, when production slows down. The Department of Agriculture has already predicted a 4 percent jump in beef prices in 2013, and a 2-3 percent jump for poultry, eggs, and pork.

This year, stock up and save by filling up your freezer in advance. But hurry, Obama is already at the store emptying the shelves for the government’s big bloated shopping cart.

A Hungry World Population? Oh Well, Let Them Eat Ethanol!

The debate over corn for gas or food is still very hot due to the continued EXTREME drought in the corn belt states.   The drought and extreme heat has lasted so long that it is unlikely even if rain were to come, that it would do much good.  The corn crop loss will likely exceed 50% of the crop when the final figures are in.  AND, given that ethanol gas gets 1st priority on corn with approximately 40%+ of the corn crop going to ethanol, you can see that this does  not leave a whole lot for animal feed and human food.....

"Pete"
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A Hungry World Population? Oh Well, Let Them Eat Ethanol!

Patrick Michaels, Contributor - Forbes
At the interface of public science and public policy

This year, given the expected yield reductions, we could easily destroy over half of our corn producing mandated ethanol.
…Here come the corn riots.
Climate change policies—much more than the vagaries of climate–are now beginning to create the instabilities that cooler heads have been warning about for years.
Corn prices on the Chicago Board of Trade are now at or near record levels, around $8.30 per bushel for spot delivery. The rise in recent weeks has been dramatic, driven by the perception of declining yields caused by hot and dry conditions mainly in the upper Midwest.
Much of this corn is beyond redemption as grain.  High temperatures render corn’s pollen sterile, and the narrow pollination season—usually around ten days in a given field—dictates that once this time has passed, there’s likely to be very few kernels set on each ear.  While rain may allow the plant to recover, its value as feed is dramatically reduced.
(Read the full article here:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmichaels/2012/07/22/a-hungry-world-population-oh-well-let-them-eat-ethanol/)

The U.S. corn growing region is massive in extent, so that some residual yields are always preserved.  The drought of the mid-1950s was a widespread and multi-year event, but it only reduced  yields (the amount produced per acre) around 20%.  The current drought is comparable in extent, but not in magnitude nor in duration. Yet.
Back then, the average yield was around 45 bushels per acre (a bushel is 56 pounds of shelled corn), and rising at a pretty constant rate that began with the large-scale adoption of hybrid corn, which began in the 1930s.
Despite the wailings of Paul Ehrlich and his tiresome compatriots, there were no great famines because of some fantasy “limits to growth” that were forecast to soon to be breached.  Instead, corn yields continued their steady climb.  A good year now yields around 160 bushels. Between then and now, there have been several bad years caused by drought, heat, and blights, and pretty much every one of them has seen the same percentage toll on yields, about 25 % of the maximum expected value at the time.
The Department of Agriculture’s July 11 projection is for a 9% reduction from that nominal 160. But it’s been pretty hot and dry since that estimate was made (with data from many days before 7/11), so things are going to drop further, which is why corn prices continue to climb.
Which brings us to ethanol.  It comes from corn. The amount to be produced is a mandate, not a choice. It’s 13.2 billion gallons this year.  Last year we burnt up 40% of our crop.  This year, given the expected yield reductions, we could easily destroy over half of our corn.
The U.S. is by far the world’s largest producer, and our abundant supply is a major factor in keeping the price of the world’s most abundant feed and food grain low—generally around $3.00/bushel.  That was before George W. Bush decided that the answer to global warming was to produce ethanol from corn.  Hence the rise in corn price that commences with the 2007 passage of the ethanol mandates, followed soon by global food riots.  $8.00 corn today will likely bring much more of the same.
Bad weather is a fact of life in agriculture. In the last four decades, the time of maximum and increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, there’s no evidence of an increase in the number of bad crop-years, nor a change in the magnitude of the percent drop in yields that occurs. 2012 is shaping up like a garden-variety crummy year.
What we have seen is a change in policy, not of the weather.  Now, the Saudi Arabia of corn burns up half of its supply, instead of selling it to a hungry world.  All of this was brought to you by our greener friends and, yes, Republicans, working the political process hand in hand.  Later, the environmental community realized—as some of us had been telling them for years—that corn ethanol results in an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, not a decrease.
Of course, there is little chance that the disproportionately influential farm lobby is going to swallow changing the ethanol mandate when its constituents are making money hand-over-fist because of an artificially induced shortage.  It’s also an election year. But, isn’t it just too bad about those poor people in Mexico and around the world who actually will suffer for the insanity and depravity of our agricultural/environmental policy?

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