August 9, 2012

The Honorable Lisa P. Jackson Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Room 300, Ariel Rios Building 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20460

Dear Administrator Jackson:

We are writing in support of the July 30, 2012 “Pe tition for Waiver or Partial Waiver of Applicable Volume of Renewable Fuel” by the Nationa l Chicken Council and others that formally asked you to use your discretionary author ity to waive the volumetric requirements, in whole or in part, of the Renewable Fuel Standards ( “RFS”)pursuant to Section 211(o)(7) of the Federal Clean Air Act, as amended by the Energy Ind ependence and Security Act. This provision allows you, in consultation with the Secr etary of Energy and the Secretary of Agriculture, to waive the RFS standards for up to o ne year if implementation of the RFS requirements would severely harm the economy or env ironment of a State, a region, or the United States. The severe drought that has gripped a large swath of this country has led to an undersupply of corn and a corresponding spike of co rn prices. If the RFS standards are not waived, the consequences to Delaware and Maryland’s economy would be severe, including the loss of thousands of jobs.

The historicand prolonged drought that has gripped this nation has also greatly impacted the Delmarva region. It is expected that our farme rs will experience at least a40% yield reduction in this year's corn crop alone, which doe s not account for the fact that this is the third consecutive year in a row that corn yields in our r egion will be significantly below estimates. Therefore, the region has had to supplement its add itional corn needs from the eastern corn belt, primarily Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, which have al so suffered through months of a prolonged drought.

Nationwide, the USDA’s July projection for the US c orn crop has already been reduced from 166 bushels per acre to 146 bushels per acre, the largest downward revision in over a quarter of a century, and the USDA’s total corn sup ply projection estimate shrank from 14.79The Honorable Lisa P. Jackson

August 9, 2012 Page 2

billion bushels to 12.97 billion, a drop of 12.3%. It is very likely that the USDA’s August projection will further reduce the expected corn yi elds to 135 bushels per acre or even lower. As a result, the price of corn in the commodities mark ets has spiked to the highest level ever. It is conceivable, if not likely, that the combination of historic low yields due to the prolonged hot weather and drought, coupled with the spike in pric es will cause Delaware and Maryland poultry companies to end up paying more than $9.50 per bus hel in late fall and winter to meet their corn

needs. That translates into hundreds of millions of dollars in added costs for Delmarva’s poultry producers. Those additional costs will either be p assed on to consumers, or poultry farms will be forced out of business, or some combination of the two. Under any scenario, the resulting impact on the Delmarva economy would be severe.

In 2012, more than 40% of the U.S. annual corn sup ply was to be used to meet the RFS corn based ethanol requirements established annuall y by the EPA. If you were to exercise your statutory authority to waive the RFS standards for the next year, it would make more than 5 billion bushels of corn available to the marketplac e for animal feed and foodstuffs, driving down costs and significantly lessening the financial imp act to Delmarva’s poultry farms and consumers. While there may be some who question th e true price impact of waiving the RFS standards for a limited period, those debates are q uantitative, not qualitative, as it is not in dispute that a waiver would put downward pressure o n corn pricing. Given the likely impacts to the poultry industry, not to mention the increased cost of food for consumers, of this dramatic increase in price due to the undersupply of corn, i t is hard to imagine any scenario when exercising your authority would be more appropriate . Conversely, as the waiver request is limited in scope, any resulting impact on the biofu els industry would be minimal.

In these challenging economic times, we urge you to exercise your authority, before it is too late, to save thousands of jobs in Maryland and Delaware. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Governor Jack A. Markell Governor Martin O’Mall ey State of Delaware State of Maryland

cc: The Honorable Tom Vilsack, U.S. Department of A griculture The Honorable Steven Chu, U.S. Department of Energ y The Honorable Nancy Helen Sutley, Council on Envir onmental Quality