Corn Ethanol Loses More Support

GOP Senators Ask
EPA to Backtrack
As Food Prices Rise

Rising food prices are prodding lawmakers in Washington to rethink support for corn ethanol.

Two dozen Republican senators on Friday — including Republican presidential candidate John McCain (R., Ariz.) — asked the Environmental Protection Agency to ease requirements mandated by Congress in 2007 to blend more ethanol and other renewable fuels into the gasoline supply.


The lawmakers said the mandates are contributing to a sharp increase in food prices. Sen. McCain has been a critic of ethanol subsidies.

“With the price of everyday meat, chicken, bread and eggs rapidly increasing, we are asking the EPA to use the flexibility that Congress gave them, because so many families cannot afford the increasing prices at the grocery store,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R., Texas). An EPA spokesman couldn’t be reached to comment.

WSJ