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U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) unveiled three agricultural policy priorities as she campaigned for president in Iowa recently:

• Expanding farm loans;
• Helping farmers who are facing bankruptcy; and
• Overhauling EPA’s process for granting small refineries exemptions from biofuel blending requirements.

Klobuchar, a Senate Agriculture Committee member, called for raising the amount of debt covered by Chapter 12 bankruptcy to $10 million from about $4.15 million, which would allow more farmers to qualify for the special farm bankruptcy rules.

The proposal is similar to bipartisan legislation she sponsored with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and others, plus a companion House bill, which have been steadily attracting co-sponsors (especially as challenges in the farm economy have made headlines recently).

Klobuchar also called for legislation allowing year-round sales of E15, gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol. The EPA announced it would allow such sales late last week.

She also wants to rethink EPA’s waivers for small refiners, which her campaign warns could “cripple the homegrown biofuels market for years to come.”

Source: Politico