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TSCRA Daily News Update, May 23, 2008
Hutchison bill is latest effort to revisit renewable fuels mandates Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and a group of ten Senate cosponsors filed legislation on May 19 calling for a freeze (at the 2008 level) in the corn-based ethanol mandate that was passed in December 2007. The energy bill requires an annual increase in the amount of ethanol produced domestically - mandating nine billion gallons of grain-based ethanol this year and growing the requirement to 15 billion gallons by 2015. "The ethanol mandate is clearly causing unintended consequences on food prices for American consumers," said Sen. Hutchison in a news release. "Freezing the mandate is in the best interests of consumers, who cannot afford the increasing prices at the grocery store due to the mandate diverting corn from food to fuel." NCBA opposed increasing the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandate for corn-based ethanol in the 2007 energy legislation, and NCBA policy supports the objective of the Hutchison bill to halt any further hikes in the RFS.
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