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SUNUNU: CORN-BASED ETHANOL PRODUCTION HURTS

NATION’S ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT

Comments at Capitol Hill hearing

on impact of fuel subsidies on the price of food

WASHINGTON, DC – United States Senator John Sununu (R-NH), a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), today (5/7) underscored the damaging impact of corn-based ethanol production policy on the nation’s economy and environment at a Capitol Hill hearing on Wednesday morning.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard testimony on Wednesday morning, May 7 at its hearing entitled, “Fuel Subsidies: Is There an Impact on Food Supply and Prices?” Andrew Siegel, Vice President and Treasurer of When Pigs Fly, Inc., a bakery with locations in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, York, Freeport, and Kittery, Maine, and Somerville, Massachusetts was among the witnesses to testify.

“Ethanol production is driving up prices for small businesses, such the New England-based When Pigs Fly Bakery, and continues to hit families and food pantries hard. This year, over 30% of America’s corn harvest will be diverted from food to ethanol production. That’s a bad deal for New Hampshire and the nation, because it causes higher prices for bread, milk, eggs, and other commodities,” said Sununu, who has a long record of opposing ethanol subsidies and recently called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to waive the requirement that fuel refiners blend corn-based ethanol into the nation’s fuel supply. “Moreover, 1,700 gallons of water are used to produce just a gallon of ethanol, 30 million acres of land are necessary to support the corn used for that ethanol, and a recent study indicates that ethanol production nearly doubles greenhouse gas emissions from the land that’s cultivated over a 30-year period – all significant environmental consequences.”

Sununu joined 23 of his Senate colleagues in a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson asking the EPA to consider waiving the 2007 mandate because the diversion of corn supplies into fuel has contributed to higher food prices in the United States and around the world.  EPA has the authority to waive the mandate or structure it differently if it results in adverse, unintended effects.

        Wednesday’s HSGAC hearing complements a May 1 Joint Economic Committee Hearing where Sununu also outlined the damaging effects of corn-based ethanol subsidies on food prices in the United States and around the world.