On December 10 MRAA joined with 40 other organizations in an open letter to Congress and a full page advertisement in Political, a Capitol Hill newspaper, asking Congress to support several bills that have been introduced in both the House and Senate which would eliminate the corn ethanol mandate in the renewable fuel standard (RFS). […]

MRAA Chairman Steve Baum and President Matt Gruhn has asked the President to support the recent decision by the US Environment Protection Agency to waive the 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Many have expressed great concern that the market cannot accommodate higher levels of ethanol. “We remain concerned that the new RFS would require more […]

Representatives from fifteen marine trades associations met under the Advisory Council of Marine Associations (ACMA) at the Marine Dealer Conference and Expo (MDCE) to review legislative and regulatory activity at the states and federal government. ACMA serves as the legislative committee of the MRAA Board and prepares resolutions which are presented to the MRAA Board […]

As the Washington Watch goes to press, Congress has passed 55-laws; and with only a few days left before the end of the year, the 113th Congress will certainly go down as the least productive in history. Even the infamous Do-Nothing Congress of 1948 did more. Hyper-partisanship is gumming up the bulk of laws. Most […]

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Candice Miller (MI-10), member of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, today praised the House of Representatives’ strong, bipartisan vote of 417 to 3, passing H.R. 3080 – the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013 (WRRDA). Included in WRRDA, is Miller’s provision designating all ports and harbors […]

One of the biggest issues facing small business, and especially marine retailers, is the continuing movement in the federal government to over regulate. MRAA would prefer that many federal regulations simply be eliminated, but a key first step is to simplify the process. Three key House bills with companions in the Senate have been reported […]

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is asking Members of Congress to sign his letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Dear Colleague,” to lower the renewable fuel standard. MRAA supports this letter and has asked retailers and trade associations to encourage their Member contacts to also sign the Goodlatte letter. The RFS mandates that 36 […]

The Federal government has shutdown, and Democratic and Republican leaders are not bending in their discussions on how to achieve fiscal responsibility. Concern is deepening in financial markets, and among businessmen, about the potential for a U.S. default of its debt.In just one day this week interest rates rose, making it twice as expensive for […]

In August the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the 2013 annual percentage standards for the RFS program for biofuel, biomass based diesel, biofuels and renewable fuels. These standards will apply to all gasoline and diesel produced or imported in 2013. The EPA also provided more lead time to obligated parties to demonstrate compliance with the […]

MRAA attended a meeting last week organized by the Ethanol Coalition. The overall feeling was that Congress itself has done little legislative work. However, the coalition felt Congress is still on schedule for hearings and perhaps reform/repeal legislation in October, which is the original goal. A press gathering was held in San Francisco in August […]