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Illinois Farm Bureau: “Rural America is bleeding” from decreased biofuel blending

Illinois Farm Bureau representatives testified against the EPA’s latest proposal for Renewable Fuel Standard volumes in Michigan Wednesday.

“Rural America is bleeding because we are no longer blending anywhere near the volumes of biofuels today that we should be.”

IFB Vice President Brian Duncan says small refinery waivers have resulted in nearly 1 billion bushels of corn crushed for ethanol being lost.

“If that billion bushels was off of today’s corn stocks, corn would easily be worth $1 per bushel more, probably twice that. And if you add that to last year’s corn crop and this year’s corn crop as well, we are talking about a $26 billion dollar hit.”

He says the EPA’s new rule will compound the problem and impact farm profitability in a time when farmers cannot afford it.

IFB’s DeAnne Bloomberg added that 2019 will go down in farmers’ memories as “one gut-punch after another” and the spike in small refinery waivers is one of them.

“As put to me by a farmer from his combine yesterday, ‘There has never been a life lost protecting a Midwest corn, unlike a Mideastern oil field’.”

IFB members were among dozens of farmers, retailers and ethanol producers to testify on the proposal.