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Cross-posted from Envirovore
Texas Governor Rick Perry has a beef with the EPA’s new Renewable Fuel Standards. The Republican governor, as well as four dozen U.S. House members and two dozen senators (including John McCain), have written to the EPA chief requesting a 50 percent waiver of ethanol mandates, claiming the quotas will further harm cattle and chicken industries by raising feed prices.
Initially, a spring study by Texas A&M showed that a waiver on ethanol quotas would not reduce the price of corn in the U.S. However, upon request by Perry, A&M reanalyzed their data in light of the Midwest floods, and unsurprisingly, they found that a waiver would indeed drastically reduce the price of corn.
Researchers estimate that 43 percent of all corn grown in the United States will be for ethanol by 2016. It’s hard to imagine that this conversion has not already been raising corn prices for livestock producers. Unfortunately though, Perry’s request, apparently reasonable in its basis, is a tad spoiled by a $100,000 donation that the Perry-led Republican Governor's Association received from chicken magnate Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim.
EPA's decision on the waiver of all states' ethanol production quotas is expected by July 23rd.
Via Houston Chronicle
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