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| Federal Ethanol Supports Set to Expire at Year's End |
(IRN)-Ethanol supports are due to expire at the end of the year, giving Congress another policy area to battle over.
Federal law provides ethanol producers a subsidy of 45 cents a gallon for blending ethanol with gasoline, and the government collects a tariff of 54 cents for importing ethanol. Rod Weinzierl, head of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, says this is no time to change that policy, with agriculture the one sector of the economy that's doing OK. Weinzierl says ethanol eventually will have to sink or swim at market rate, but ending the subsidy abruptly will cause ethanol plants to throw people out of work.
Opponents of the subsidies are fiscal conservatives who say the subsidy and tariff make the price of corn, gasoline and ethanol artificially high, members of Congress from outside the Corn Belt and environmentalists, who say the tariff makes it cheaper to import oil than ethanol. Also concerned are livestock producers, who believe the price of the corn they use for feed is inflated by the ethanol subsidy and the requirement that refiners use 12 billion gallons of renewable fuel this year, a number that will rise to 15 billion by 2015 and 36 billion by 2022.
The subsidy and tariff will expire unless Congress takes action.
U.S. Senator Mark S. Kirk has signed onto a letter in support of extending the current structure. Senator Dick Durbin, as is customary for a member of leadership, did not, but has traditionally been a supporter.
(Source: Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 12 07 10 by Newsroom |
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