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Peterson blasts EPA on proposed RFS rule

House Ag Chairman Collin Peterson had harsh words for the Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday at a hearing to review the impact of EPA’s proposed renewable fuelstandard, RFS-2, on the biofuels industry. The ruling includes that controversial indirect land use calculation that the ag industry says unfairly singles out ethanol, "And I no longer have any confidence that – I shouldn’t be goin’ after you folks – that you people have any idea what’sgoing on here. You are gonna kill off the biofuels industry before it ever gets started. Peterson accused the EPA of, in his words, being “in bed with the oil company.” “You know," Peterson asks, "why would you put indirect costs on corn, you know, and soybeansand not put it on oil? What about the indirect costs of protecting the oil shipping lanes in the Middle East? That’s not counted. I mean, this is ridiculous what’s goin’ on here.”

Peterson says after trying for two years to fix the RFS in the energy bill, it’s obvious theEPA doesn’t like corn ethanol and wants to “kill it off.” Peterson voted for the energy bill two years ago.

And when it comes to a climate change bill, Peterson says he’s off the train and will not support any such bill because he “doesn’t trust anybodyanymore.”  Peterson and others made his statement before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research on Wednesday, the day after the EPA released its proposed rule for the implementation of the new RFS and opened the publiccomment period.