August 12, 2010
Congressional debate shows varied views on biodiesel/ethanol tax credit
Published in Farm & Ranch Guide
GILFILLAN, Minn. - One week before the Minnesota Aug. 10 Primary Election, nine Congressional candidates, at Farmfest, offered their views on agricultural issues.
Over the course of the 100-minute-forum, each candidate had roughly 10 minutes to answer questions from ag media related to the farm bill, animal agriculture, biofuels and more.
When asked about the lack of passage of the Biodiesel Tax Incentive that has expired and the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit that is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2010, here is what each candidate had to say:
Seventh District
Congressman Collin Peterson, D
The lack of passage for the biodiesel tax credit has shut down some plants and dried up investment and now we have the same thing going on in ethanol.
I would say a bigger problem is what’s going on at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy on their inability to raise the blend wall.
Long term, I believe these biofuels are going to have to be able to stand on their own economically.
We can’t rely on these credits forever, but what we have to have is access to the marketplace.
One of the things I think makes sense is to take the blenders credits and transfer them over to open up the marketplace, to put blender pumps in every station and have all of the vehicles flex fuel. I think if we can get access to the market, we can compete.
Seventh District
Candidate Lee Byberg, R
We need a comprehensive energy policy that includes all energy sources including biofuels.
In 20 years, the demand for energy doubles, that means we have to take an all inclusive energy approach to creating that energy - not through Cap and Trade with its mandates forcing us to do, but through incentives that take advantage of the American entrepreneurial spirit to innovate.
Seventh District
Candidate Alan Roebke, R
What we’re doing in Minnesota and have been doing for years is — we mandate 10 percent ethanol in all of the United States.
The current 45-cent a gallon blenders ethanol credit could be used much wiser to promote corn-based ethanol. Freight equalization, and all the states are using 10 percent ethanol. It’s the best way to extend that source.
Seventh District
Candidate Glen Menze, I
The biofuels and alternative energies - I’m all about these things. I believe in incentives to do that, and I believe in the alternatives that are competitive. We can’t continue to build welfare programs based on energy or anything else. We can’t afford it. What we have to do instead is have incentive programs so that alternative energy can move ahead.
First District
Congressman Tim Walz, D
I have worked on bipartisan energy legislation to make sure we’re independent here at home. We send over $1.5 billion per day to three countries that support terrorism and hate us. We can create the jobs right here at home and broaden our base of energy fuels.
This is a solution that comes right from Minnesota. We’re doing it here from wind to biofuels and so forth.
I support the ethanol tax credit. If we go to the same old political rhetoric - the Democrats say the Republicans did it, the Republicans say the Democrats did it, the Independents say ‘I ain’t any one of those people’ — we’re never going to get a solution.
We need to put our money where our mouth is, vote these things and move them forward as we have. Ethanol is a great start.
First District
Candidate Randy Demmer, R
We need good energy policy in this country. We need to go to renewables, and we need to use our own resources.
Yes, I support the renewal of the biodiesel tax and extend the ethanol tax credit.
All of the things that are not getting done are not the result of a bipartisan gridlock. It’s the inability of the current Congress to get things done. We need certainty in our marketplace, we need certainty in our tax policy, and we need certainty in terms of anything that is being helped by the government.
If we have some subsidy helping biodiesel and ethanol and biofuels moving forward, we may have to get off those at some time, but there has to be a path for that.
First District
Candidate Steven Wilson, I
My approach regarding the renewal of the biodiesel tax and extending the ethanol tax credit is to look at the budget first and see if there is any money there first and then decide if you are going to spend more.
If half of the money coming into your household was from borrowed resources, would you be able to say to your kids, ‘I’m going to continue your allowance at the same rate?’
You have to decide if you...
