Tom Vilsack, the United States Secretary of Agriculture,
says he’s not ready to reduce the government requirement for blending
corn-distilled ethanol into gasoline.
About 40 per cent of U.S. corn goes to make ethanol.
Livestock and poultry groups recently sent him a letter,
urging a reduction in the amount of corn that has to be used to distill ethanol
so there will be more available to them to feed their livestock and poultry.
Corn prices have more than doubled to about $8 a bushel as
drought spreads across cornfields in the Midwestern United States.
Vilsack told the Iowa Farm Bureau
summit Tuesday that “now is not the time to change the Renewable Fuel
Standard.”
“Some will want to use the
drought as an excuse to change the Renewable Fuel Standard, but now is not the
time,” Vilsack said.
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| President Obama meeting with Tom Vilsack |
It's not, however, the agriculture department that is in charge of the ethanol mandate.
Vilsack said first he’s going to
offer drought relief to livestock farms, such as opening more conservation
reserve land to grazing and hay-making.
Vilsack is scheduled to brief the
cabinet on the drought situation today.
