CRA Corn Refiners Association : Blasts EPA as “World’s Only Carbon Life Cycle Deniers.”

January 5, 2017

WASHINGTON, DC - Shortly before Christmas, EPA denied the Biogenic CO2 Coalition's Petition for Reconsideration of EPA's Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding for Aircraft regarding EPA's treatment of biogenic CO2 emissions from short-cycle annual herbaceous crops. Challenges by the Biogenic CO2 Coalition to EPA's position on biogenic emissions under its Clean Power Plan, standards for new power plants and aircraft engines are currently pending before the federal D.C. Circuit Appeals Court. With respect to EPA's recent petition denial, Corn Refiners Association President and CEO John Bode issued the following statement:

'EPA's regulatory ambitions appear to be unquenchable. In the name of controlling greenhouse gases that are 'excess' or above pre-industrial levels, EPA is striving to regulate even carbon emissions from annual crops. There is no dispute that the carbon released from processing annual crops is the carbon that was captured when the crops grew and that crops and other plants were growing in pre-industrial times. EPA's refusal to acknowledge these facts makes it the world's only carbon life cycle deniers.'

There is bipartisan support in Congress for removing EPA's overreaching regulatory barrier to development of the bioeconomy. Major investments in U.S. development of advanced bioproducts are ready, with widespread development of products like renewable, compostable or recyclable bioplastics. The technology is here. The only real question is whether EPA bureaucratic ambitions can be controlled enough to allow bioeconomy development here in the U.S., or whether those investments and jobs go overseas.

We are eager for some common sense decision making at EPA.

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The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) is the national trade association representing the corn refining industry of the United States. CRA and its predecessors have served this important segment of American agribusiness since 1913. Corn refiners manufacture sweeteners, ethanol, starch, advanced bioproducts, corn oil and feed products from corn components such as starch, oil, protein and fiber.