July 27, 2010
Ethanol tax credit keeps industry here
Published in Des Moines Register
I am constantly surprised by the willingness of Americans to continue to give time to self-proclaimed experts and other detractors who beat down the only source of real energy independence we know - corn-based ethanol.
In 2004, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit was created as part of the American Jobs Creation Act. It provides oil refiners, blenders and marketers of fuel a federal tax credit of 45 cents per gallon of ethanol.
In order that American taxpayers don't subsidize foreign entities, a secondary tariff was created to keep our ethanol production stateside and truly grow our independence.
Removal of the secondary tariff on ethanol would result in increased imports of Brazilian ethanol, according to a recent study by Growth Energy. The ripple effects would wipe out more than 112,000 jobs in every sector of the economy and increase our appetite for oil with as many as 364 million barrels of oil.
It's clear from the disaster in the Gulf, and the instability in the Middle East, that we need a different solution to our energy needs. We will need all sources of energy, but an answer grows in our Iowa cornfields. It's renewable, efficient, abundant, safe, and it creates American jobs - corn-based ....
