Texas Republican John Cornyn
(Kohr-Nihn) is drawing up legislation to overhaul the Renewable Fuels Standard.
It’s his attempt to end the disagreement between corn-state lawmakers and
oil-patch legislators. Cornyn’s office has been hosting talks for several
months on altering the nation’s biofuels program and come up with a variety of
policy ideas, although they haven’t narrowed down any of the choices yet. A few
of the policy ideas range from creating national octane standards to creating
new supports for cellulosic ethanol or even further subdividing the system for
biofuel credits. Cornyn says his goal is to build enough consensus that the
legislation will eventually become the basis for an RFS reform bill. Corn-state
senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa says he’s still skeptical of Cornyn’s efforts.
“I’m skeptical about the effort coming out of Texas that’s been going on for
more than a year-and-a-half will be able to find a proposal that is acceptable
to stakeholders on all sides of the issue,” he says. “However, they do deserve
some credit for taking the time to learn and appreciate the economics of the
renewable fuels industry.”
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