WASHINGTON — Today, Senators Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.) once again introduced the Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act in an attempt to undercut the Renewable Fuel Standard. Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, released the following statement: "Senators Feinstein and Toomey continue to operate under the misguided assumption that the RFS is driving food prices higher. It is not. Corn is less expensive today than when the RFS was passed! As the World Bank recently concluded, 'most of the contribution to food price changes from 1997-2004 and 2005-2012 comes from the price of oil.' "The RFS has been a tremendous success and the resulting production of ethanol has many value added benefits. For instance, every $1.00 worth of feedstock that goes into the production of ethanol results in $1.83 in fuel and animal feed. Moreover, the RFS has created jobs, helped reduce the amount of oil the United States must import from foreign countries, significantly lowered greenhouse gas emissions and helped bolster rural communities. "The sad irony of the Feinstein-Toomey effort is that, if passed, the sector most likely to be harmed would be the advanced and cellulosic technologies that are just now realizing commercial success. This bill would desolate investment in that nascent sector by crushing the foundation upon which those new technologies hope to build."
