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Corn Growers Oppose EPA Rule
The Illinois Corn Growers Association is blasting new federal rules on renewable fuels, and they're calling for change.

Association president Tim Lenz says much of the problem with the new Renewable Fuels Standard Two -- or, RFS II rules, is that the U.S. E.P.A.-authored regulations involve what they call a groundbreaking science, but is one that he calls made up by lawyers and activists.

Lenz says the controversial International Land Use Charge, which assigns environmental impact costs to various industries simply doesn't make sense.

"Corn grown in Illinois or Iowa or Missouri or wherever, is getting this mythical indirect land use charge," Lenz said, "because they think we're converting rain forests or grasslands in Brazil. So, to just the everyday person, that doesn't make common sense."

Under the rules, sugar cane farmers in Brazil wouldn't be charged for cutting trees and mowing down grasslands in order to grow sugar cane for ethanol, but farmers in the midwest who grow corn for the same purpose would be.

Lenz says he hopes Congress will take notice and make changes, or he says so-called green jobs will be lost, and farmers will have no incentive whatsoever to grow more corn in order to turn it into ethanol.

He's encouraging farmers to also start bringing the issue to their representatives in Washington.
03 13 10 by Newsroom
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