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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

On World Environment Day, a Call to Rethink Ethanol

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Wednesday, June 6, 2018   

NEW YORK - A coalition of small-business owners, industry leaders and environmentalists says it's time to take a hard look at the real impact of ethanol mixed in gasoline.

In 2005, Congress passed the Renewable Fuel Standard, requiring that 4 billion gallons of ethanol be added to the nation's gasoline. Two years later, the requirement was raised to 36 billion gallons, and now there's pressure to increase it again. But while part of the original intent may have been to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, Jerry Jung, founder of the group Rethink Ethanol, said it takes more fossil-fuel energy to make ethanol than it yields.

"So, if you think about that," he said, "you realize that every time we consume ethanol in our vehicles, we're actually consuming twice as much energy as if we were using pure gasoline."

Corn-producing states such as Iowa have been strong supporters of the ethanol mandate. But even Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt now is saying too much ethanol is being blended into gasoline.

The ethanol mandate also has led to the conversion of more than 7 million acres of wildlife habitat to corn production, said Jung, adding that he believes the prevalence of genetically engineered BT corn is a major factor in wiping out species such as the monarch butterfly.

"A biotoxin that kills moths and butterflies in the larval stage is bred into the corn," he said, "so the trillions of corn plants we have in this country are actually producing biotoxins."

He noted that the monarch butterfly population has declined 90 percent in the past decade.

Rather than eliminating ethanol in gasoline, some in Congress want to raise the concentration from 10 percent to 15 percent. Jung said he thinks that's the wrong way to go.

"First off, you're looking at more tailpipe emissions," he said. "Nitrous oxide and some other bad actors increase dramatically when you've got more than 10 percent ethanol in your gasoline."

Jung said the ethanol mandate was well intentioned, but science has proved it isn't helping to protect people or the environment.

More information is online at rethinkethanol.com.


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