June 28, 2010
Corn Growers on Energy Bill: Don’t Forget Ethanol
Published in DTN
The National Corn Growers Association came out against a House climate bill earlier this year as a signal to the Senate that such a bill should be changed. The argument is that despite the language in the climate bill creating carbon offsets, renewable energy portfolio and exempting agriculture from carbon caps, the bill would cost agriculture.
Now, NCGA is coming back into the energy debate, saying any energy legislation should include incentives for ethanol. Keep in mind that without action the 45-cent ethanol blender credit will expire at the end of this year. Ethanol producers, and their supporters, may be looking at the failure to keep and extend the $1 biodiesel credit as a rational for saying that any climate/energy bill should include ethanol incentives.
In a news release issued Monday, NCGA stated:
As Congress prepares for an Independence Day Recess to be followed by vigorous discussion of a new energy bill, the National Corn Growers Association has stepped up its campaign to ensure that corn-based ethanol is part of the formula that brings our country to energy security and independence.
“With nearly two-thirds of our oil imported, we need to focus on a broad range of domestic fuel solutions,” said NCGA President Darrin Ihnen, a South Dakota farmer. “Legislation is before Congress to continue much needed incentives and there is a new energy bill on the horizon, making it an important and critical time to talk about ethanol’s many environmental and economic benefits to our country.”
Front and center in the NCGA campaign is a new television ad using powerful images and common sense to stress the importance of ethanol. It will air starting Monday, June 28, on local news programs in Washington and on major cable channels such as Fox, CNN and MSNBC.
“It’s now clear that events both here at home and abroad demand a different solution to our energy needs,” the ad states. “One that protects our national security, safeguards our environment and promotes economic growth. One answer grows in our own backyard. Turning American corn into America’s energy. It’s renewable, efficient, abundant and safe. And it creates American jobs. We feed the world; we can fuel it, too. Ethanol. Now is the time.”
This campaign follows closely on recent news that ethanol production has grown more efficient in the past few years, and is considered to be “energy positive” -- For every unit of energy required to make ethanol, 2.3 units of energy are produced, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported on June 21.
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