As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) comment period comes to a close prior to their decision on whether or not to grant a waiver for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the American Coalition for Ethanol submitted comments to make the case to keep the RFS in place. The comment deadline is October 11, 2012.

ACE Executive Vice President, Brian Jennings, said, “On behalf of ACE, we urge EPA to deny requests to waive the RFS based on a range of compelling factors, including statutory thresholds for triggering a waiver, precedent established in 2008 when the Agency denied a request by the state of Texas, data which proves waiving the RFS won’t remedy the harm of the drought, existing market conditions, and built-in flexibility which ensures RFS compliance without straining the corn or ethanol marketplace.”

Jennings wrote in the comments, “The economic data and built-in flexibility prove that waiving the RFS would not remedy the harm caused by the drought and would not significantly reduce corn prices or ethanol demand. Waiving the RFS would simply discourage farmers around the world from planting corn, which runs contrary to what the meat and livestock groups supporting the waiver want.”

ACE has been engaging in a grassroots campaign encouraging ethanol supporters to submit comments to the EPA. To date, more than 86 comments from 13 different states have been submitted through ACE’s digital RFS Action Center.

On a wholesale level, Jennings says ethanol is 70 cents cheaper than gasoline, and has been as much as one dollar per gallon less expensive this year. “ACE is confident that after reviewing the facts, EPA will reject the requests to waive the RFS because they fail to meet the criteria set forth by the law.”