BioFuels Journal

by Jerry Perkins, editor, BioFuels Journal

Omaha, NE—Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack defended the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) Friday in a speech to the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) here.

Despite the worst drought in decades, a waiver to the RFS isn’t needed, Vilsack told attendees at ACE’s 25th annual meeting, because the market is already making adjustments to an anticipated short supply of corn and soybeans.

“The market is already adjusting to lower crop production,” Vilsack said, in response to a question from BioFuels Journal.

“We should let the market work.”

Some livestock groups and oil refiners have asked for a waiver to the RFS, which requires that a certain amount of biofuels be added to the nation’s fuel supply.

The drought, they maintain, has caused high corn and soybean prices and made a waiver to the RFS requirements necessary.

Vilsack said refiners can use Renewable Identification Numbers, also known as RINs, in lieu of buying ethanol.

“If there needs to be some adjustments,” Vilsack said, “there is flexibility in the system with RINs.”

Vilsack spoke just an hour after the release of the USDA’s August crop report, which showed a projected average corn harvest of 123 bushels an acre and a soybean harvest of 36 bushels an acre.

Because farmers planted five million more acres of corn this year, Vilsack said, the 2012 harvest is projected to be the eighth largest corn crop in history, despite the dry and hot weather.

Because of the shorter crop, Vilsack said, livestock feeding is down, exports of corn have declined, and ethanol production is projected to be 500 million bushels less than what was projected two months ago by the Agriculture Department.

Attacks on the RFS and biofuels are being financed by powerful interests, Vilsack warned, and he encouraged ACE conference attendees, most of whom have a financial interest in ethanol, to speak out in support of renewable fuels.

“You’ve got to be engaged and educate and communicate” with consumers, state and local government officials, and business people about the benefits of ethanol, said Vilsack.

“You’ve got to get in the game because the other side is in the game…If you are silent and on the sidelines, (ethanol’s opponents) will take advantage of it.”

Also on Friday, retiring U.S. Senator Ben Nelson, D-NE, received the Merle Anderson award, which is named after the founder of ACE and is presented annually to an individual who has made significant contributions to the ethanol industry.

Nelson, who also served as governor of Nebraska, has been a longtime supporter of ethanol during his political career.

The ACE conference was attended by 250 people, conference organizers said.

It concluded Friday afternoon.

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