What America needs during a historic drought that is devastating corn production sure isn't a mandate to divert a lot of what corn is being harvested into 13 billion gallons of ethanol.
So the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) and a coalition of nearly 20 food groups have called on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to waive a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that forces that diversion.
"The US food industry is suffering greatly under the combined effects of the RFS and the current drought," the coalition told the EPA, emphasizing that the RFS will exacerbate "the effects of the drought by further increasing the price of corn, and in turn, all food products that depend on corn for their production."
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA administrator has the power to waive the RFS mandate in situations where not doing so "would severely harm the economy." AFFI and its allies pointed to recent studies that concluded providing "a waiver would directly relieve these pressures on the price and availability of corn and is the appropriate public policy choice in light of the projected shortages."
