May 25, 2010
Ag leaders ask Congress to extend ethanol tax credits
Published in Farm and Ranch Guide
North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and seven other state agriculture officials today urged congressional leaders to quickly extend the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit.
“All present and future benefits of ethanol are in jeopardy if this tax credit and related policies are not maintained,” Goehring said. “Failure to continue these important tax policies would make us even more dependent on foreign energy sources.”
The tax credit expires at the end of this year, but legislation has been introduced in both houses of Congress that would extend the current ethanol tax policies to 2015.
Also signing the letter was Bill Northey, Iowa secretary of agriculture; Jon Farris, South Dakota acting secretary of agriculture; Robert J. Boggs, director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture; Tom Jennings, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture; Dr. Jon Hagler, director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Rod Nilsestuen, Wisconsin secretary of agriculture, and Greg Ibach, director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.
“As representatives of rural America, we strongly urge you to support the extension of these important policies that allow us to successfully produce domestic fuel,” the letter stated. “America’s farmers stand ready to continue their role as providers of food, feed, fiber and renewable fuel as well.”
The letter cited a recent University of Missouri study which determined that failure to renew the tariff would result in 39,506 job losses in the first year after the tariff lapses, 115,624 job losses in the second year and 161,384 in the third year.
The corresponding and dramatic decline in economic activity was calculated at ....
