By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois Corn Growers Assoc. (ICGA) officials were quick to denounce a proposal by Republican senators to waive the nation’s Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), saying such action is ill-advised and would have serious repercussions that would only push fuel and food prices higher.
“This is bad policy and tantamount to waving the white flag in the battle to make our nation less dependent on unstable and unfriendly governments,” said ICGA President Art Bunting, a corn producer from Dwight, Ill. “The primary influence on higher food prices right now is $120-barrel oil.”
Twenty-three Republican senators – including presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) – asked Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Thompson to use his authority to waive the RFS because of its “unintended effect on food prices.” The EPA has 90 days to respond to the letter from the legislators.
The ethanol program “has contributed to pain at the cash register, at the dining room table and a devastating food crisis throughout the world,” media sources quoted McCain as saying.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) blasted the Republican proposal, calling it without merit.
“Instead, we must get to the heart of the problem by evaluating the root cause of high food prices and expanding the use of alternative feedstocks in ethanol production, such as the investment in production of biofuels from cellulosic materials in the farm bill currently moving through Congress,” he said.
Bunting said the $123 billion profit realized by the oil industry last year is enough money to buy the entire world corn crop or 70 percent of the world wheat crop, while the price consumers pay for fuel continues to soar.
“Ethanol is the only competitor in the marketplace and the RFS is giving us the foothold needed to expand this domestic industry,” he stated.
According to the Center for Agricultural Development at Iowa State University, expanded ethanol production is curtailing gas prices by 29-40 cents per gallon while having only a marginal impact on the cost of food.
Additionally, the White House recently released information showing that increased production of corn-based biofuel is estimated to account for only 3 percent of an estimated 43 percent increase in global food prices. Transportation, packaging, marketing and labor are the main culprits in across-the-board increases in the cost of food, according to the study.
“Congress is taking a lot of heat from distressed consumers who are feeling the pain of higher fuel and food prices,” said Bunting. “I hope this current effort isn’t just an attempt to deflect this ire onto corn.
“The petroleum industry seems to have already done yeoman’s work setting corn up as a scapegoat, so I don’t think they really need the assistance of the U.S. Senate.”
No Midwestern senators’ signatures were present on the letter, according to ICGA communications director Mark Lambert. He insisted ICGA is not taking the Republican proposal to rescind the RFS lightly. “It’s an election year, so anything could happen,” he said. “We are taking this seriously and will not hold anything back to protect the future opportunities for corn growers represented by a healthy ethanol industry.”