The National Council of Chain Restaurants issues the following statement from NCCR Executive Director Rob Green on the introduction of the Renewable Fuel Standard Reform Act, which seeks to limit the scope and costs of the federal government’s requirements on the use of corn-based ethanol and other biofuels:
“The National Council of Chain Restaurants and our broad membership of quick-service, fast casual, and table service restaurants support repeal of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). As long as the RFS mandate is law, it will continue to adversely affect America’s chain restaurants, their small business franchisees and their customers.
“NCCR applauds Chairman Goodlatte and Reps. Womack, Costa, and Welch for introducing legislation to overhaul the RFS and for working to bring common, economic sense back into the discussion on ethanol and the RFS.
“A recent PwC study – commissioned by NCCR – found that the federal mandate on corn-based ethanol substantially raised prices and costs for chain restaurants on a wide variety of inputs and commodities. The report concluded that if the RFS mandate and ethanol requirements were left unchanged it would increase chain restaurant industry costs by up to $3.2 billion a year, each year the RFS remains in effect.
“NCCR shares Chairman Goodlatte’s well-placed reservations about the Renewable Fuel Standard and supports efforts to eliminate this artificial and arbitrary corn ethanol mandate and ‘ethanol tax.’”
The National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR) is the leading trade association exclusively representing chain restaurant companies. For more than 40 years, NCCR has worked to advance sound public policy that best serves the interests of restaurant businesses and the millions of people they employ. NCCR members include the country's most-respected quick-service and table-service chains. NCCR is a division of the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade group.