(Adds details, Obama comment, bylines)
By Timothy Gardner and Charles Abbott
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) – The governors of North
Carolina and Arkansas joined two of their Northeast peers on
Tuesday in asking the federal government to temporarily suspend
the ethanol quota, piling pressure on President Barack Obama to
make a tough choice months before the election.
The worst drought in 50 years has sent corn prices to record
levels, straining meat and dairy producers that use the grain as
feed. Governors Mike Beebe from Arkansas and Beverly Purdue from
North Carolina sent the requests in letters to the Environmental
Protection Agency.
“We’ve gone ahead and filed our letter. We’ll see how it
goes,” said Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Beebe. The Arkansas
letter was sent to Reuters by the governor’s staff.
The Renewable Fuels Standard, or RFS, which requires 13.2
billion gallons of ethanol to be made from corn this year “has
imposed severe economic harm to my state’s swine, poultry, dairy
and cattle producing regions,” said the letter from Purdue to
EPA head Lisa Jackson.
The letter from North Carolina was shown to Reuters by
ethanol and livestock industry groups. Purdue’s office would not
confirm that the letter had been sent.
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment
about the new letters.
Jan Psaki, an Obama campaign spokeswoman, said the
president, who campaigned in Iowa on Tuesday, has been a strong
supporter of ethanol and cellulosic ethanol, which one day could
be made in commercial levels from non-food crops.
“He absolutely believes in it, he thinks it’s a driver of
the economy here and a key component of renewable energy,” Psaki
told reporters before news broke of the new requests.
The RFS is strongly supported by swing states in the Nov. 6
election that grow corn for ethanol, including Iowa, Ohio and
Michigan.
Last week the governors of Delaware and Maryland, two
poultry producing states, sent letters to the EPA asking for
relief from the mandate to mix ethanol into gasoline.
Like Obama, all four of the governors are
Democrats.
In 2008 the EPA refused a petition by Texas Governor Rick
Perry to waive the requirement. The agency said in its rejection
that petitions would have to show that the mandate itself caused
severe economic harm to a region, state or the country, and that
it did not just contribute to any such harm.
Beebe and Purdue join a growing movement, both at home and
abroad, calling for a suspension of the U.S. mandate including
Jose Graziano da Silva, the top U.N. food official.
It is unclear that a waiver would dampen corn prices.
Refiners will likely continue buying almost as much ethanol even
without the mandate since they use it as an additive to make
cleaner-burning fuel required in much of the country.
In addition, ethanol industry groups say the mandate also
offers degrees of flexibility to fuel blenders who are
ultimately they ones responsible for meeting the mandate. The
flexibilities include the ability to purchase bankable credits
if blenders aren’t able to buy enough physical ethanol to meet
their requirements.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Iowa; Editing by Gary
Hill and Ed Davies)
