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Legislation intended to expand demand for farm grown fuel continues to move, albeit slowly, in the U.S. Senate. The Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) is a part of the Energy Policy Act of 2003 and is being actively supported by Farm Bureau. According to AFBF President Bob Stallman, "The agriculture community strongly supports the RFS because it gives the ethanol and biodiesel industries a stable demand that will lead to increased capital investment and rural economic development."

The RFS calls for an increase in petroleum refiners’ usage of ethanol and biodiesel beginning in 2005 at 2.6 billion gallons per year and ramping up that usage to 5 billion gallons per year by 2012. Another provision is a federal phase-out over a four year period of petroleum-based methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which is the main oxygenate used in many regions of the U.S. today. It also includes ethanol liability protection and eliminates the 2 percent oxygenate standard mandate.

These changes will increase annual demand for corn by 1.4 billion bushels and 144 million bushels for soybeans according to estimates made by AFBF. This should result in a $4.5 billion dollar increase in net farm income according to Farm Bureau’s calculations.

In a letter sent to Senators, Stallman said the bill has support beyond farm country. He explained that the environmental community likes the provisions that will protect air and water quality. And he said the petroleum industry is supportive because the RFS affords them flexibility in creating fuel blends.

All Americans will benefit from this bill according to Stallman. "The RFS will assist in lowering this nation’s dependence on foreign sources of energy and will help reduce the U.S. trade deficit by displacing as much as 1.4 billion barrels of foreign crude oil over the life of the provision, " he said. Stallman also called the RFS a "rural economic stimulus package" that will create more than $5 billion in new investment for renewal fuel production facilities and create more than 200,000 jobs.

At press time, Senate proponents indicated their goal was to complete work on the energy bill sometime early in June.