The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized their Tailpipe Emissions Rule last week, making the rule even a bit more stringent than originally proposed. IL Corn joined several groups in submitting comments opposed to the proposed rule, which originally proposed that 67 percent of vehicle sales be battery electric vehicles by 2032, and now pushes that number to 69 percent. 

Understanding that a move away from liquid fuels could decimate the ethanol industry and corn demand, IL Corn responded with a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune on March 24. The ad encouraged Congress to take advantage of corn-based ethanol to achieve our country’s climate goals and promoted the Next Generation Fuels Act as an opportunity to both achieve the greenhouse gas reduction goal and protect liquid fuels and internal combustion engines. 

Perhaps most notably for Congress, the Next Generation Fuels Act allows Americans to freedom to buy the vehicles they want to buy. 

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln published a study on July 5, 2023 as a response to the EPA’s proposed rule in which they found that the unintended consequences of a rule like this that moved our country away from liquid fuels could be the next 1980s-like farm crisis.  

Now that the Tailpipe Emissions Rule is final, there are only two choices: America is forced to buy battery electric vehicles OR we work together to pass the Next Generation Fuels Act. One decimates rural America. One builds it up.