WASHINGTON (AP) - With a deadline for comments approaching, North Dakota’s congressional delegation is pressing the Obama administration to reverse course on proposed changes that would significantly reduce the amount of ethanol in the country’s fuel supply.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced in November it was proposing reductions by nearly 3 billion gallons in the amount of biofuels required to be blended into gasoline in 2014. The EPA has said the additive had become less necessary in light of fuel-efficient engines and lower fuel demand.
A deadline for comments on the proposed rule change is Tuesday. Members of North Dakota’s delegation have used much of the time between November and the deadline to press federal officials to reverse their proposed changes.
The latest effort came last week when Sens. John Hoeven, a Republican, and Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, signed onto a letter with 29 other senators to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy saying that changes would make the U.S. more reliant on foreign oil and would hurt farmers and small-town economies.
“The Administration’s proposal is a significant step backward - undermining the goal of increasing biofuels production as a domestic alternative to foreign oil consumption,” the letter reads. “Further, the proposed waiver places at risk both the environmental benefits from ongoing development of advanced biofuels and rural America’s economic future.”
Heitkamp, Hoeven, and GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer all have been critical of the EPA and President Barack Obama’s energy policies in recent months, with opposition to changes to renewable fuel standards just the latest source of tension.
Cramer, Heitkamp and Hoeven have pressed hard for the administration to approve the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline and have offered increasingly sharp criticism about delays in a decision on the pipeline. And the delegation regularly has criticized the Obama administration’s policies toward coal.
Farmers have credited the 2007 law, called the Renewable Fuel Standard, with ensuring high crop prices, especially for corn. The law required oil companies to blend billions of gallons of biofuels but gives federal officials the ability to adjust requirements. Many farmers fear that reducing the requirement would lead to a further drop in crop prices after a large drop in corn prices in 2013.
The letter is the most recent step taken by North Dakota’s delegation as it seeks to stop changes to the standard. Heitkamp and Hoeven both have expressed their frustration in meetings with federal officials. After meeting with McCarthy in December, Heitkamp said she told the EPA chief “now is not the time” to make changes.
As the two-month comment period on proposed changes has played out, the Obama administration has given no indication that efforts to reverse the proposed rule are having an effect on their thinking.
Supporters of the changes say they are overdue and reflect the mixed impact of ethanol and other biofuels. Environmental groups and others cite ethanol’s role in rising food prices and say the pressure to grow more corn has eaten into land that would have otherwise been set aside for conservation.
The EPA has said it still sees alternative fuels as a key component in a comprehensive energy policy but that the current fuel requirement is more than is needed or could be used.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.