appears he is fence sitting again...
President Obama hasn’t indicated whether he would support a suspension. Obama has maintained that ethanol is a strong driver of the rural economy because it supports corn prices. He also recently unveiled several measures that he said would help farmers combat effects of the drought.
The ethanol industry and its supporters have said a suspension isn’t necessary. Ethanol production has already fallen 15 percent this year because of falling gasoline consumption and higher corn prices, according to Poet Ethanol, the country’s largest ethanol producer.
Waiving the mandate now would only lower corn prices by about 5 percent, and it would cause long-term uncertainty in grain markets and raise the purchases of foreign oil, said Poet CEO Jeff Lautt.
U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, said he didn’t sign the House letter asking the EPA to suspend the mandate, although he strongly opposes government mandates and subsidies.
Energy markets are complex, he said, and turning government mandates on and off and on again would roil the markets and hurt market participants.
What makes this debate different from most in Congress, Pompeo said, is that it doesn’t fall along the usual partisan lines. Many supporters of the mandate are farm state Republicans.
Livestock producers, lawmakers push for suspension of federal ethanol mandate | Wichita Eagle
