On Monday, U.S. Republicans unanimously approved a 2008 platform that calls for the end of the nation’s ethanol mandate. The party broke with the Bush administration, which has strongly supported increasing the production of ethanol as a vehicle fuel, as outlined in the energy act passed last December.
Critics of the mandate, which calls for the production of 9 billion gallons of ethanol this year, say it is responsible for increasing food prices, as ethanol is primarily made from corn. Proponents of the measure say the ethanol supply has kept the cost of gasoline from going $0.50 higher, which also would affect food prices.
The Republican platform–passed at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota–states: "The US government should end mandates for ethanol and let the free market work."
The platform also calls for an increased efforts to develop cellulosic ethanol, which is made from non-food sources, but has yet to reach commercial levels of production.
The Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), which is responsible for creating the ethanol mandate, calls for increasing levels of ethanol fuel to be blended with gasoline to 36 billion gallons through the year 2022. The RFS calls for increasing levels of cellulosic ethanol beginning at 0.1 billion gallons in 2010 and increasing to 16 billion gallons in 2022.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, economic adviser to Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said the campaign did not ask the platform committee to include that provision, but McCain had long supported eliminating the ethanol mandates.
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