The National Chicken Council praised the Environmental Protection Agency for its willingness to adjust the Renewable Fuel Standard, but said the final standard for 2013 established on August 7 does not go far enough to truly help the poultry industry.
National Chicken Council President Mike Brown added that further action from Congress to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard is the best way to give poultry and livestock producers more market certainty for the feed grains that are also used in renewable fuels.
The final 2013 overall volumes and standards issued by the Environmental Protection Agency require 16.55 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be blended into the U.S. fuel supply (a 9.74 percent blend). This standard specifically requires:
• Biomass-based diesel (1.28 billion gallons; 1.13 percent)
• Advanced biofuels (2.75 billion gallons; 1.62 percent)
• Cellulosic biofuels (6.00 million gallons; 0.004 percent)
"The National Chicken Council appreciates that EPA has finally recognized the reality of the situation and is willing to consider adjustments to the 2014 volume requirements of the RFS to address the fact that we simply cannot blend more and more ethanol into less and less gasoline," said Brown. "This is a band-aid approach, however, to a problem that needs a long-term, sustainable solution. Chicken producers, and all end users of corn, can't rely upon the administration to make these adjustments on an annual basis. We need certainty in the market that only Congress can provide by repealing the conventional requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard."
