US Republican Party splits over ethanol; Hutchison calls for biofuel freeze; Inhofe for biofuel mandate waiver
In Washington, the Republican Party began to break ranks with President Bush over ethanol, when Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson said she will introduce legislation to freeze the biofuel mandate passed in the Energy Independence and Security Act last December.
Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma called on the EPA to impose “an immediate waiver from [biofuels] mandates” while a review of the impact of ethanol production on the global food crisis is undertaken. “People are starving to death because of this transfer from food to fuel,” Inhofe said. “As the ranking member of the EPW committee, which has jurisdiction, I’m going to ask for an immediate waiver to stop this mandate.”
Senator Hutchinson had put a procedural hold on the 2007 Senate Energy Bill in October, arguing that the bill was bad for Texas. The bill eventually was passed without the Renewable Power Standard. Food groups, oil and gas companies and some livestock producers had requested a lower corn ethanol mandate, and have asked that higher mandates increases be tied to technological improvements.
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mtbottle | Apr 30, 2008 | Reply
Notice that the senators mentioned are pretty much owned by big oil.
Dynahog | Apr 30, 2008 | Reply
Where is the evidence that “food sales are exported to starving countries of the World from the United States”, and thus “data shows that Ethanol mandates decrease food exports” ?
I’ve seen this kind of anti-Ethanol stamp of disapproval all over the Internet, and it did not originate in the United States.
Can the U.S. Congress at least try to collect data that demonstrates U.S. exports of foods to starving countries have been affected by increased Ethanol production?
It’s kind of like finger pointing, and Democrats do it all the time. Blame the U.S. for a World problem that is not ours. Like Global Warming and the melting Arctic Glaciers and Alaskan environment changes are blamed on the Continental U.S. by Democrats and Liberals. But the scientists in Alaska today are collecting the actual data that is showing sources of Green House gases that originated from China, Russia and other countries outside the USA.
Well …………….?