The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology approved Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner’s bill, H.R. 3199, by a vote of 19-7 this week. This bill requires a comprehensive assessment of the scientific and technical research on the implications of fuel with more than 10% ethanol.
Thirty one groups had signed on in support of the bill including meat and poultry groups as well as auto and small engine associations.
The bill will require the EPA to task the National Academies of Science with conducting further research that would compare mid-level ethanol blends to blends containing 10 and zero percent ethanol. The National Academies would be required to report their results to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology 18 months after enactment of the legislation.
Sensenbrenner said, “In small engines, E15 is downright dangerous and the EPA has no credible plan to stop mis-fueling. If ethanol is going to be the ‘fuel of the future,’ then there should be no problem conducting independent, comprehensive scientific analysis of its effect on American drivers.”
Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis countered that The Green Jobs Waiver for E15 was accompanied with more independently-gathered data, science and research in its support than any of the other 11 Clean Air Act waivers previously approved by the U.S. EPA.
“No fuel blend has been tested as thoroughly as E15. No fuel blend has undergone the level of scrutiny E15 has – and passed the tests like E15 did. They’ve been looking at E15 for more than three years,” Buis said. “Now Rep. Sensenbrenner wants to move the goal posts again – a move that would only add more red tape and regulation.”
Policy is one of the most important issues facing farmers today, but often the most difficult to digest. Jacqui Fatka has a passion to decode the often difficult world of agricultural policy into terms understandable for today's ag players.
Fatka joined the Farm Progress team as E-Content Editor in August 2003 after graduating from Iowa State University. Prior to full-time employment with Farm Progress, she interned at Wallaces Farmer magazine, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's press office and the Iowa Pork Producers Association and freelanced for National Hog Farmer. She also worked as a public relations consultant with Iowa Industries for the Future, an effort to bring together major players in the biorenewables industry.
Currently Fatka is a staff editor at a sister publication, Feedstuffs. For Farm Futures she regularly tells the story of ongoing agricultural policy changes. Her byline can also be found on management profiles.
Fatka grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Atlantic, Iowa. She currently lives in central Ohio with her husband Eric, and their three children - Josiah, Spencer and Avonell.
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