The National Association of Egg Farmers (NAEF) was in Washington, DC May 7 joining with a coalition of other groups under the banner The Smarter Fuel Future (SFF). In a meeting with the EPA Director of Transportation and Air Quality, Chris Grundler, he encouraged the group to petition Congress as he is only carrying out the law. NAEF reminded him of his discretionary authority on ethanol volume percentages for the RFS program and asked for a balance between the statutory requirements based on the petitions from the coalition meeting with him
The coalition included livestock groups such as the National Turkey Federation, the California Cattlemen Association, Michigan Allied Poultry Association,The Milk Producers Council, the American Meat Institute who are opposed to expanding corn-based ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard increasing because ethanol mandates:
- ·raise feed prices,
- ·raise food prices,
- ·hurt efforts to curb global hunger,
- ·put engines at risk of damage,
- ·increase emissions,
- ·negatively alter land and water use,
- ·lower fuel economy
The “RFS Day of Action” including a meeting with EPA and key Members of Congress, calling on the EPA to maintain its proposed 2014 RVO and for the Congress to take up legislative reform that would permanently address the problems inherent in the current RFS.
Groups Participating:
- Action Aid
- American Bakers Association
- American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers
- American Meat Institute
- American Motorcycle Association
- California Cattlemen’s Association
- Coalition of Energy Users
- Colorado Off Highway Vehicle Coalition
- Colorado Snowmobile Association
- Engrave, Inc.
- Florida Concrete and Products Association
- Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association
- HeartLands Conservancy
- Michigan Allied Poultry Industries
- Michigan Boating Industries Association
- Michigan Snowmobile Association
- National Association of Egg Farmers
- North Carolina Federation of College Republicans
- National Taxpayers Union
- National Turkey Federation
- One New York (representing NYC consumers)
- Oregon Recreational Association
- Oregon Small Business Association
- Oregon State Snowmobile Association
- Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Central Pennsylvania
- Young Republican National Federation (representing conservative college students)
Farm Policy Picks Up Ethanol Meetings With NAEF Headliner
Farm Policy, a popular blog circulated widely on Capitol Hill and at USDA, picked up on the ethanol meetings in Washington, DC on May 7. This is what they circulated in their blog:
Ken Klippen of The National Association of Egg Farmers, and Greg Gibeson a member of the board of directors for the Recreational Boaters of California, noted in an update yesterday at The Hill’s Congress Blog that, “Today, seventeen industry leaders from a diverse swath of America’s business landscape have convened in Washington united in concern over bad government policy albeit hopeful that a solution is near. Representing interests as disparate as cattle ranchers to snowmobile manufacturers and concrete producers, these men and women have come from across the country to make a final plea to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stick to proposed reductions to the Renewable Fuel Standard’s biofuel blending requirements in 2014. As the EPA’s final ruling looms, it’s become all too clear that America’s biofuels policy has failed as consumers face consequences like engine damage, greater gasoline costs, rising food prices and dirtier air as more and more ethanol is blended into our gasoline supply.”