On Friday, September 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution overturning EPA’s tailpipe emissions standard. The standard calls for an average emissions reduction of 52 percent via the manufacturing of electric vehicles. Electric vehicles will now make up two-thirds of all vehicles sold by 2032.
Such a significant decrease of liquid fuel vehicles on the road will result in a significant decrease in domestic ethanol demand, costing family farmers around one billion bushels of corn demand destruction. Such a change could throw rural economies into a tailspin, according to a study by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. IL Corn Growers Association (ICGA) remains vehemently opposed to this draconian standard.
“Corn farmers in Illinois applaud the House vote on a resolution that would overturn what ICGA calls the EPA’s de facto electric vehicle mandate. The emissions standards the EPA released in May focused only on electric vehicles as a pathway to decarbonize the U.S. transportation sector and did not consider other alternatives, like clean-burning corn-based ethanol,” says Dave Rylander, President of ICGA and farmer from Victoria, IL.
“The ethanol produced from my corn here in Illinois has a greenhouse emissions reduction of 45-50 percent below conventional petroleum fuels and it’s available to consumers now without having to overhaul our infrastructure and force Americans to buy vehicles they aren’t yet ready to buy,” he concluded.
ICGA is currently partnering with other organizations in litigation in federal court against the rule.
While corn farmers remain grateful for the House’s action to overturn the rule, another immediate course of action would be to consider the Next Generation Fuels Act. The bill creates a new low GHG emissions fuel standard that allows any fuel – including higher blends of ethanol - meeting the standard to have access to the marketplace. Corn-based ethanol could continue to fill the tanks of internal combustion engines on the road, giving customers access to the types of vehicles they want to buy. The bill will also invest in America’s rural communities and farm families.
