The National Chicken Council on Tuesday joined a diverse coalition of more than 20 food, manufacturing, automotive and business associations in opposing an amendment (the “Open Fuels Standard”) to Senate Bill S. 1813, sponsored by Sens. Cantwell (D-WA) and Lugar (R-IN) , which would effectively mandate that 80 percent of gasoline-powered light-duty vehicles be tri-fuel vehicles capable of running on any combination of ethanol, methanol and gasoline beginning in model year 2018.
“This highly controversial and costly consumer mandate has not been the subject of a hearing nor a vote in Committee and is more appropriately considered in the context of an energy bill and not a bill focused on transportation infrastructure and safety,” the groups wrote Tuesday in a letter to Senate leaders.
“At a time when many policy makers are questioning the costs of ethanol to taxpayers, the environment and the food supply, effectively imposing a massive new tax on consumers for a car that can run on ethanol and methanol makes no sense,” the letter continued. “The tri-fuel vehicle mandate proposed in S.A. 1657 will cost consumers billions of dollars per year to buy vehicles that are not offered for sale today and for which there is no fuel currently being produced in the US.”
A copy of the letter is available here.
