The ethanol industry says corn ethanol is here for the ‘long haul’ despite the Biden Environmental Protection Agency’s latest move to speed up electric vehicle production. Renewable Fuels Association head Geoff Cooper says his industry won’t suffer big losses even as the Biden Administration moves to sharply boost electric vehicle production by 2032.
Cooper; “We’re somewhat skeptical about whether these regulations can actually be achieved. But beyond that, even if they could be, we are actively pursuing new uses and markets today. You’re hearing a lot about sustainable aviation fuel and a lot about ethanol use in heavy-duty applications.”
Cooper says it’ll take years for any significant ‘hit’ to automotive ethanol use even if the EPA meets its two-thirds target for EV sales with the toughest emission rules ever proposed.
Cooper; “We don’t expect to see significant demand loss in the short term or even in the five-to-ten-year window. We think that the demand destruction that would be attributable to EVs is probably not going to be terribly acute until that ten-to 15-to 20-year time horizon, which gives us a decade or more to start building other markets.”
Separately, the House will again this week take up a WOTUS disapproval measure that President Biden recently vetoed in a move the American Farm Bureau sharply criticized. Federal courts have paused the Biden WOTUS rule in more than half the states as the Supreme Court considers a clearer definition of a “Water of the U.S.”
