Press Releases

Following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) release of the final rules for the 2014-2016 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Steve Womack (R-Ark.), and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) released the following statement:

“The EPA’s decision to funnel more ethanol into the fuel supply is terribly disappointing. The RFS requirements announced today will push ethanol volumes beyond the blendwall in 2016, leaving American consumers and our economy to feel the negative effects. While well-intentioned, it’s now abundantly clear the RFS is a broken policy that is having drastic impacts on families, small businesses and retailers, the agriculture community, and the environment. 

“Neglecting the concerns of 184 bipartisan Members of the House of Representatives over increasing ethanol requirements, the EPA proceeded anyway. And since the EPA refuses to keep RFS volumes below the blendwall, Congress must act to fix this broken ethanol mandate. A growing majority in Congress has recognized the ‘real-world limitations’ of this bungled policy, and a recent survey found 70 percent of Americans oppose it. The RFS Reform Act is a solution to the problems created by the ethanol mandate, and our bill would finally provide much-needed, long-term relief for those impacted by the failures of this policy.”

Recently, 184 bipartisan Members of the House of Representatives joined in sending a letter to EPA Administrator McCarthy expressing concerns regarding the proposed 2016 RFS requirements. In February 2015, Goodlatte, Welch, Womack, and Costa introduced the RFS Reform Act (H.R. 704), which eliminates corn-based ethanol requirements, caps the amount of ethanol that can be blended into conventional gasoline at 10 percent, and requires the EPA to set cellulosic biofuels levels at production levels.

Congressman Steve Womack has represented Arkansas’s Third Congressional District since 2011 and serves on the House Appropriations Defense, Financial Services and General Government, and Labor-Health and Human Services subcommittees and the House Committee on the Budget.

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