Actionaid USA

Filing Period

Jan 1, 2012 to Dec 31, 2012

Signed

May 20, 2013

Return Version

2012v2.1

Gross Receipts

$2,310,129

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

Education and Advocacy to Reform US Biofuels Policy, Address Global Food Price Volatility, and Secure Land Rights for Impoverished People: ActionAid USA worked with the Environmental Working Group to Last year's drought across the US farm belt devastated the US corn crop, fueling renewed efforts to reform US biofuels policy as laid out in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Members of Congress, state governors, poultry, beef, and milk producers, environmental and development organizations, and many others joined together to petition the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to waive the RFS mandate to alleviate pressure on grain supplies and prices. The combination of a devastated corn crop and inflexible mandates calling for 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol to be blended into US gasoline pushed corn prices to record highs, but nevertheless the EPA refused to waive the mandate.Although ActionAid USA's analysis cast doubt on the utility of a 1 year waiver to alleviate upward pressure on corn prices, the EPA's refusal to grant a waiver illustrated the central problem represented by the inherent inflexibility of US biofuels mandates. This in turn generated a new commitment by a coalition that includes industrial agriculturalists, free marketeers, the grocery and fast food industries, the oil industry, environmental, and development organizations to work for a complete phase out of US mandates for the use of corn ethanol. This represented a significant shift from earlier reform efforts supported by the same coalition which sought to create greater flexibility in US biofuel mandates rather than abolish them entirely. ActionAid USA played a critical role in efforts to take advantage of this new political context as the primary US-based organization illuminating the impact of US biofuels policy on food security and access to land in the global south. In October, we released our report "Fueling the Food Crisis," a comprehensive discussion of the real cost of US biofuels policy for countries around the world in terms of increased prices for corn imports. The report featured a comprehensive literature review of studies demonstrating biofuels' impact on food prices and debunked many of the common arguments put forward by the US biofuels industry. The report included case studies on the impact of US biofuel mandates on Guatemala and Uganda, featuring research done by ActionAid affiliates in those countries. The report generated extensive US press coverage, including a feature story by Elisabeth Rosenthal of the New York Times, who traveled to Guatemala on a trip organized in collaboration with ActionAid US and ActionAid Guatemala to take a closer look at the issues there. ActionAid USA has since used this story extensively in our advocacy efforts with the US Congress, including at well-attended Congressional staff briefings in the US House and Senate. As a result, of this advocacy and press work, ActionAid USA was the only development organization invited to participate in a personal meeting with 4 US Representatives (Goodlatte, Womack, Costa, and Welch) to inform their efforts to craft a RFS reform bill. These 4 US Representatives explicitly sought to create a bill that could be supported by all of the stakeholders they had called into the meeting. Most of the stakeholders present were already coordinating their approach through the informal coalition, where ActionAid US exercises strong leadership. Because of the coalition's strong history of working together on this issue we were able to present a united front in the meeting, insisting that none of us could support legislation unless the concerns of all members of the coalition were addressed, including those of the environmental organizations present and ActionAid USA. As a result, legislation will be introduced April 2013 that if passed would completely phase out US corn ethanol mandates and address US policies that generate increased demand for other land-intensive biofuels such as

Filer

EIN

52-2277575