Lawmakers Increase Pressure on Obama’s EPA to Ease Ethanol Rule

Bloomberg BusinessWeek
By Mark Drajem and Mario Parker on August 02, 2012

More than 150 U.S. lawmakers of both parties prodded President Barack Obama’s administration to cut a requirement that refiners use ethanol, as corn prices climb amid the worst drought in a half century.

Rising corn prices are hurting livestock producers, food manufacturers and consumers, the lawmakers led by Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia said today in a letter to Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA regulates the renewable-fuels market, and Jackson can adjust or waive the ethanol requirement if it would cause “severe harm to the economy or environment.”

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