Ethanol Groups Compose Draft Policy

The Hill's Energy and Environment Blog reports that four "main ethanol industry trade groups are floating draft principles ahead of key White House and Capitol Hill decisions about extending federal assistance and market share for the gasoline additive."

The draft principles "feature the need to extend a 45-cent volumetric excise tax credit for ethanol that expires at the end of the year 'at the highest level possible' for another year."  Then they would "transition to a new four-year production tax credit essentially based on the greenhouse gases used to produce a gallon of fuel."

The draft policy "calls for establishing a loan guarantee program for ethanol pipeline projects and enabling corn-based ethanol to be considered an advanced biofuel under a federal renewable fuels production mandate.  This, would, in effect, lift the 15-billion-gallon limit on using corn ethanol to meet a requirement of producing 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022."

In addition, the draft would also "suspend the Environmental Protection Agency's effort to take indirect land use changes into account when determining the carbon footprint of ethanol."

To read The Hill's Energy and Environment Blog story, click here.

Posted: 10/12/2010