Corn ethanol supporters head to the Hill to push for higher blending mandate

In Washington, more than 300 people took to the Hill in a corn ethanol fly-in to push the Environmental Protection Agency to increase the blending mandate for conventional ethanol. Among them was the Illinois Farm Bureau who attacked the EPA for its use of the term “ambitious” when setting out the blending mandate for 2015 and 2016 that were well below that originally approved by Congress. Farmers were already well into the crop when the EPA decision was made so it was too late for them to plant something other than corn. With a lower mandate, ethanol demand will fall and in turn so will corn prices.