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Governor upset over lack of RFS decision

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad is upset that federal officials have failed to meet a promised deadline for a decision on the Renewable Fuels Standard.

“Why hasn’t the EPA decided on this issue of the Renewable Fuels Standard? We were promised that decision would be made at the end of June. Here we are, the middle of July, it’s still not been made.”

Governor Branstad says he has met with the EPA Administrator three times to make the case for keeping last year’s production levels. The E-P-A is considering a lower production requirement for 2014, adding, “You know what’s happened to the price of corn since they started this foolishness? Corn has gone from 5-and-a-half dollars a bushel to below $4 a bushel – I’m talking about below the cost of production.”

A 2005 federal law requires the EPA to set a yearly production goal for renewable fuels. The RFS has been increased every year since then but late last year the Obama Administration proposed a reduced amount of renewable fuels production for this year.

Last week, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told reporters a final decision on 2014 RFS volumes was coming “soon.”

~Radio Iowa contributed to this report~