Following the proposal to increase biofuel mandates by the Environmental Protection Agency, the American Petroleum Institute called on the EPA to protect consumers from fuels unsafe for their vehicles. A spokesperson for API says “consumers’ interest should come ahead of ethanol interests,” adding “EPA is pushing consumers to use high ethanol blends they don’t want.” API claims higher blends of ethanol, such as E15, are not compatible with most cars on the road today and can damage engines and fuel systems. The Institute wants the EPA to set the final ethanol mandate at no more than 9.7 percent of gasoline. Further, API says the EPA proposal shows the only solution is for Congress to repeal or significantly reform the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The Environmental Protection Agency released a proposal Wednesday to increase renewable fuel volume requirements across all types of biofuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard. While agriculture and farm groups applaud the increase, industry groups say the increase is not enough. The proposal would increase total renewable fuel volumes by nearly 700 million gallons between 2016 and 2017. The conventional biofuel amount of 14.8 billion gallons is an increase from 14.5 billion gallons in 2016. The EPA says the increase will achieve 99 percent of the Congressional target of 15 billion gallons. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor argues the ethanol industry is “fully capable” of meeting the 15 billion gallon target set by Congress. For biodiesel, the EPA proposal would establish a 2.1 billion gallon Biomass-based Diesel requirement in 2018, up from the 2.0 billion gallon requirement for 2017. However Ann Steckel of the National Biodiesel Board says the industry has “plenty of feedstock and production capacity to exceed 2.5 billion gallons today, and can certainly do so in 2018.” The EPA will accept comments on the proposal for 60 days.

Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran says he is cautiously optimistic regarding the fight against listing the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently announced it will not pursue an appeal of the federal court decision to vacate the threatened species listing. Kansas became center stage for the fight against listing the lesser prairie chicken. In a weekly newsletter, Moran says he is worried the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made a strategic decision to restart the listing process for the bird instead of continuing to fight a losing battle in court. Moran says “stakeholders in Kansas need certainty on the listing, adding that he asked the Fish and Wildlife Service regarding its future intentions on the listing. The bird’s population has increased near 50 percent since 2013 at the end of a multi-year drought. Moran says rainfall, plus locally-driven, voluntary conservation plans, are best suited to preserve and grow the population, “not more burdensome regulations from the federal government.”

Sources tell Reuters USDA will take part in the U.S. panel that will review the ChemChina acquisition of Syngenta. State-owned ChemChina and Swiss-based Syngenta agreed to the $43 billion acquisition earlier this year. However, U.S. lawmakers want a review of the deal. Lawmakers also asked that USDA be part of the review so “the potential impact of the transaction on domestic food security could be better assessed.” USDA and Treasury Department officials have declined to respond or confirm that USDA will be part of the review by the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Syngenta said earlier this year it would make a voluntary filing with the committee for its deal with China’s state-owned firm “even though no obvious national security concerns were identified.” The ChemChina acquisition of Syngenta would be the largest foreign acquisition ever by a Chinese company.

A new report by the National Academies of Sciences released Tuesday concludes that genetically modified organisms cause no more health problems for people than other foods. Specifically, the report says there is “no substantiated evidence of a difference in risks to human health between current commercially available genetically engineered crops and conventionally bred crops.” The 388-page report comes as lawmakers are still attempting to reach a compromise in the U.S. Senate to create a national standard for GMO labeling before Vermont’s mandatory labeling law starts in July. While members of the Senate Agriculture Committee are working out a compromise, the details have yet to be made public. The Senate failed to move forward on a voluntary labeling bill earlier this year. Among other things within Tuesday’s report, the researchers say the study found no evidence that the adoption of genetically engineered crops in the U.S. has increased the rate at which crop yields are rising. The report also found no conclusive evidence of relationships between genetically modified crops and environmental problems.

The Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency is beginning an audit of controversial billboards in Washington State which alleged water pollution was the result of agriculture. Politico says the billboards were funded by a grant from the EPA and were part of the “What’s Upstream” campaign by the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. An EPA official has already acknowledged that the billboards likely violated the agency’s rules because they did not disclose EPA involvement. Agricultural groups have charged that the billboards amount to lobbying, which is a violation of Federal law. The EPA has already been found guilty of one such anti-lobbying violation with its social media campaign promoting the Waters of the U.S. Rule.