NEWS RELEASE

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Immediate Release:
Thursday, September 17, 2009

Nebraska Corn Board contacts:

Kelly Brunkhorst: 402.471.2676

Nebraska Corn Board urges farmers to speak out on EPA proposal

The “RFS-2” proposal would result in regulations that are not based on science, and it may create an undue burden for farmers.

LINCOLN, NE — The Nebraska Corn Board is encouraging farmers to contact the Environmental Protection Agency with comments on the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard regulations – commonly known as RFS-2 – because the proposal could have a significant impact on corn-based ethanol.

The comment period ends Friday, Sept. 25, and the Nebraska Corn Board urges farmers to submit comments by going to www.NebraskaCorn.org and clicking on the Action Alert icon.

“While components of the RFS-2 proposal have merit, other portions incorporate unscientific assumptions and ignore yield advances and crop production forecasts made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” said the Nebraska Corn Board’s Kelly Brunkhorst. “Bottom line, the RFS-2 proposal has some serious flaws that need to be reworked.”

Brunkhorst explained that the proposal might place a significant burden on corn growers who deliver corn to ethanol plants because they would have to prove their crops were grown on land that was in production prior to 2007.

The RFS-2 also penalizes corn ethanol for assumed indirect land use changes.

“EPA is trying to say that producing corn ethanol here increases greenhouse gas emissions in other countries, like Brazil, because those countries will till up new land to increase their output,” Brunkhorst said. “Yet I look out at the record corn crop in Nebraska that is being produced on fewer acres, and these assumptions make no sense. There are too many variables involved in deciding what to plant – for farmers in this country and around the world. Plus, for every bushel of corn we use for ethanol we produce nearly 18 pounds of distillers grains, a great animal feed that can replace corn, soybean meal and urea in rations.”

Another important factor for corn ethanol – and all biofuels under the RFS-2 proposal – is that EPA's analysis creates an uneven playing field because it ignores the impacts of oil and gas production.

“From oil spills to military protection on shipping routes to destroying land for oil exploration and pipelines, it is foolish to believe that there are no indirect impacts from oil use,” Brunkhorst said. “Plus when it’s burned, all that carbon and other pollutants go straight into the atmosphere. There is no renewable cycle like there is for biofuels.”

Corn farmers have worked hard to get better at what they do, Brunkhorst said.

“Farmers today are growing more corn with less fertilizer, less water and on less land. Their hard work and efforts to lead this country’s charge towards renewable corn ethanol shouldn’t be met with poor regulations that have no solid basis in science,” he said. “We’re encouraging farmers, and those who support farmers and ethanol, to let EPA know.”

The Nebraska Corn Board is a self-help program, funded and managed by Nebraska corn farmers. Producers invest in the program at a rate of 1/4 of a cent per bushel of corn sold. Nebraska corn checkoff funds are invested in programs of market development, research and education.

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