Nebraska governor Dave Heineman does not agree with fellow governors who are calling for a waiver of the corn ethanol mandate in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).
Last week, the governors of North Carolina, Arkansas, Maryland and Delaware asked the EPA to drop the mandate for the remainder of 2012 and all of 2013. They contend it is adding to already high feed prices for livestock producers.
But Heineman says it’s still too early to make that call.
“I don’t think we should go there yet,” Heineman says. “I want agriculture to continue to work together—our ethanol industry, our commodity groups, livestock groups—and so I hope we can weather that storm.”
Heineman says the ethanol industry has been very good for the ag industry and the state of Nebraska.
“The price of corn has gotten unusually high—I think everbody understands that—and if we could find the right balance, then we’d be back where we’d like to be.”
Nebraska is the second-largest ethanol producing state in the U.S., behind Iowa.
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