Last month, I had the opportunity to offer testimony in support of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal to modestly scale back the amount of ethanol required to be produced under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). It presented a great chance to reflect on the American Baking Association’s (ABA) long-term efforts to bring market forces to bear on ethanol.
The ABA was an early and lonely leader in the move to change both public opinion and spur policy makers to reform this stance. At the height of the commodity crisis in 2008, the ABA made repeal of the ethanol tax credits and a rollback of the RFS one of the central goals of the Band of Bakers March on Washington.