Congressional Leadership Moving Towards Position on Renewable Fuel Standard Advocated by the Domestic Fuel Solutions Group

News provided by

Aug 19, 2013, 08:00 ET

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- From Day One the Domestic Fuel Solutions Group (DFSG) has been advocating for reasonable RFS reform. Congress is taking notice.

At the end of two days of recent House Energy & Commerce Committee hearings on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Sub-Committee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY), frustrated by the lack of flexibility on both sides of the issue, charged a "Congressional gang of four" working group to review likely alternatives and come up with a proposal for RFS reform that finds some middle ground. The working group, made up of Congressmen Shimkus (R-IL), Gardner (R-CO), Terry (R-NE) and Scalise (R-LA), represents a full spectrum of opinions about the RFS. But one thing all four can agree upon: a bipartisan compromise must be forged.

"I'm standing squarely with a foot in both bodies, and it's my goal and desire to get to a solution that benefits us all, not one side over the other," said Rep. Shimkus (E&E Daily, July 24).

The DFSG has strongly advocated for compromise on the RFS since it formed a coalition of poultry, livestock, natural gas, food industry, environmental, transportation and business groups last year. Believing the RFS to be an outdated standard that needs to be improved, the DFSG has been lobbying Congress to apply the "all of the above" approach to alternative fuels and consider making a broader array of domestic resources eligible to be used as feedstocks under the conventional biofuel portion of the RFS. Allowing additional feedstocks, like cheap and abundant natural gas, to be used to make alternative fuels like ethanol would reduce the US's dangerous over-reliance on corn.

"Our position has always been that the RFS is a flawed regulation that hasn't evolved with the times," said DFSG Executive Director Seth Jacobson. "It's driven up corn prices and caused hardship for businesses and families across the US. New technologies can alleviate the corn crisis but are effectively shut out of the market by the RFS."

The DFSG is a strong backer of HR 1959, a House bill with bipartisan support which seeks to add a new "Domestic Alternative Fuels" category to the RFS that would include abundant domestic resources like natural gas.

SOURCE Domestic Fuel Solutions Group