The lobbying began with livestock and meat-packer and poultry interests who are being hard hit by rapidly rising corn and soybean crops. Drought is the reason for the grain prices roughly doubling this summer.
Ethanol distillation takes about 40 per cent of a normal U.S. corn harvest.
Earlier a group of House of Representative members petitioned the government to waive the ethanol-content requirement.
The politicians have written to Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson requesting the waiver.
Although the ethanol mandate is of huge benefit to farmers, it’s the Environmental Protection Agency, not the agriculture department, that’s responsible for the policy.
There has been no word from Canadians, such as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, on similar ethanol mandates here.
