Four Democratic and Republican lawmakers attempted to introduce a bill Wednesday, Feb. 4, that seeks to eliminate ethanol fuel-blending mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.
The legislation would erase a mandate requiring that corn-based ethanol be mixed in gasoline and repeal the waiver that increased the cap on ethanol content to 15 percent from 10 percent, Reuters reported.
The group of lawmakers – Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Steve Womack (R- Ark.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) – previously introduced the same bill, known as the RFS Reform Act, in 2013, though it failed to pass.
Those in support of the reform act say it decreases greenhouse gas emissions and generates US farm belt jobs.
“We’re going full bore again with this Congress,” Goodlatte said, according to Reuters. The Republican representative from Virginia also planned on introducing legislation that would completely do away the standard.
In addition to the bill, the lawmakers will continue lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which governs the RFS program, for changes, Goodlatte said.
The EPA, which has yet to establish blend mandates for 2015 and 2016, is under heightened scrutiny because it delayed setting levels in 2014.
The RFS was created in 2005 under the Energy Policy Act and established the first renewable fuel volume mandate in the United States.
