Set highest ethanol mandate ever, senators ask EPA
The upcoming EPA regulatory reset of the Renewable Fuel Standard should push the corn ethanol target above 15 billion gallons for the highest annual mandate ever and allow E15 to be sold year-round, said farm-state senators on Wednesday. In a letter to EPA administrator Michael Regan, the senators urged the agency to establish “robust and expanded” biofuel mandates.
Climate change will lower Farm Belt yields ‘as soon as 2030,’ says report
For decades, farmers in the Midwest and Plains have reaped ever-higher yields per acre, but “climate change threatens to slow or reverse this productivity as soon as 2030,” said the Environmental Defense Fund on Wednesday. The “climate burdens” would worsen through 2050, the nonprofit group said in a report.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Grassley a potential upset: With polls showing Sen. Chuck Grassley, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, with an unimpressive lead, the Senate race in Iowa is among the “deep sleeper potential upsets” nationwide. (Sabato’s Crystal Ball)
Fewer fear of climate change: Less than half of participants in a global survey, 48.7 percent, see climate change as “a very serious threat” over the next 20 years, a drop of 1.5 percentage points from 2021. (Guardian)
Vote set in Oklahoma: Gov. Kevin Stitt set March 7 for a statewide referendum on legalizing recreational marijuana in Oklahoma; a 2018 referendum approved the use of medical marijuana. (Governor Stitt)
European bread prices surge: With a food inflation rate of 16 percent in Europe, bakers across the continent are setting sharply higher prices for bread — up 77 percent in Hungary, 30 percent in Poland, and 18 percent in Germany — because of rising costs for grain and utilities. (New York Times)
Vilsack, Axne in Iowa: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne are scheduled to announce rural development funding in Guthrie County, in west-central Iowa, on Friday. (Ag Insider)
