Welch wants EPA to suspend ethanol mandate

COLCHESTER — Vermont Congressman Peter Welch has joined a bipartisan group of House members to ask the federal government to temporarily suspend a mandate that ethanol be included in fuel.
Welch tells Vermont Public Radio the ethanol program is driving up feed prices for farmers at the same time a major drought in the Midwest is slashing the supply of corn. He says feed prices are up 40 percent.
Currently, 10 percent of all transportation fuels in the country must come from corn-based ethanol.
Welch, a Democrat, is in favor of a permanent end to the mandate, but for now, his goal is a temporary suspension.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, in Vermont this week, says her agency is gathering information about the proposal.