Obama to Stay Course on Biofuel Law, Vilsack Says

President Barack Obama’s administration won’t abandon the nation’s ethanol program and will encourage Congress to maintain it, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

The Renewable Fuels Standard, passed in 2007, requires the U.S. to use 13.8 billion gallons of renewable fuels such as ethanol this year and 15 billion gallons by 2015. The Agriculture Department estimated this month that 42 percent of this year’s corn crop will go toward making the fuel.