July 16, 2010
Group calls for shift in ethanol subsidy policy
Published in Brownfield Ag
Growth Energy officials today called for a shift in ethanol policy, the day after the head of the Senate Energy Committee issued a statement saying that the 45 cent a gallon credit should not necessarily be automatically extended when it expires at the end of the year. Citing a congressional study on the subsidy, chairman Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico said Congress should “take a careful look” at the cost in deciding whether or not to renew it.”
Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis, Co-Chair General Wesley Clark and special advisor Jim Nussle told reporters their “Fueling Freedom Plan” would have Congress trade some of the government incentives for ethanol into support for building out the nation’s renewable fuels infrastructure.
Buis says the plan would phase out the current ethanol supports over time. Their plan calls for using some of the VEETC blenders credit for retailers to install blender pumps and federal support for ethanol pipelines. The plan also calls for all vehicles sold in the US to be flex-fuel capable.
Buis says such a plan will lead to a genuinely free market, “We can have access to a free market, consumers can have access to a fuel choice and we can say that we no longer need government assistance.”
In a fair and open market, Buis says “ethanol can and will compete successfully against oil.” Growth Energy wants their plan considered in any debate of a comprehensive energy bill.
Nussle, a former Iowa Congressman, says it should be no more business as usual when it comes to an energy bill. He says, “If they truly want to have a debate about our energy security and they truly want to be creative about our energy future and not just kick the can again and do one more energy strategy the way they almost always do in an election year then I think this presents an opportunity for creative policy thinking.”
General Clark says their Freedom Fueling Plan is a way to measurably move toward energy independence, reducing the bill for imported oil.
Meanwhile, other ethanol industry groups – the American Coalition for Ethanol, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Sorghum Producers, and the Renewable Fuels Association - have reaffirmed their support for two identical pieces of legislation that would extend current ethanol tax incentives through 2015.
The bills, the Renewable Fuels Reinvestment Act (HR 4940) and the GREEN JOBS Act (S. 3231), would extend four key ethanol tax incentives including the 45-cent-per-gallon blenders credit for ethanol use.
ACE Executive Vice President Brian Jennings says while the alternatives being put forward are interesting, “Those alternatives cannot possibly be adopted at this stage in the legislative calendar, with just about 30 days remaining until Congress adjourns for the mid-term elections.”
