Sen. Domenici proposes Farm Bill amendment with 15 bilion gallon ethanol mandate for 2015

Senator Pete Domenici (R- New Mexico) proposed an amendment to the 2007 Farm Bill mandating 15 billion gallons of ethanol usage by 2015. The Senator, the ranking Republican on the Energy Committee, said he hopes to include an identical renewable fuel standard in the Farm Bill to the standard proposed in the Senate Energy Bill passed last summer.

The Senate Agriculture Committee approved its version of the five-year, $280 billion farm bill last week.
The bill earmarks $1.3 billion for biofuels over the next five years, and includes cellulosic ethanol incentives.

The House Bill passed in July. The Senate passed an overall funding measure on October 5, but the Agriculture Committee under committee chairman Tom Harkin had been working on specific program allocations, which include ethanol tax credits and next-generation biofuel investments. The Senate finance committee previously proposed cutting the ethanol tax credit to 46 cents per gallon.

President Bush has raised the threat of a Farm Bill veto, the first since 1956, over subsidies. Among those in hot dispute is the Brazilian ethanol tariff, which protects US ethanol producers but creates higher prices in the US and retards US ethanol demand growth.

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