Today in Biofuels Opinion: “The political climate has radically shifted”; The Farm Bill: “Plow it Under”

A spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla: “The political climate has radically shifted,” commenting on attitudes on ethanol, but Mark McMinimy, an agribusiness analyst at Stanford Group Co., said “Congress has made a strategic decision to support the building up of a biofuels industry” and won’t make a “highly disruptive” about-face.

The Washington Post, in an editorial titled “Plow it Under”, called for a veto of the Farm Bill: “After weeks of wheeling and dealing, a House-Senate conference committee has finally produced a farm bill. And what an unlovely creation it is. The nearly $300 billion, five-year legislation brims with subsidies for everything from biofuels to historic-barn preservation. It includes a dubious sugar-to-ethanol program and billions of dollars for a permanent disaster relief fund that essentially pays farmers to grow crops on land too dry to sustain them…Attaching wasteful subsidies to the poor’s nutritional safety net is the oldest trick in the agriculture politics book. It secures the votes of urban and suburban representatives who otherwise would have no reason to countenance the most egregious farm subsidies….This is not reform….President Bush should veto the bill, as he has all but threatened to do, and Congress should deny it the two-thirds vote in both houses necessary to override….In 2009, a new president and a new Congress could hammer out something more defensible.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Democrats from farm states are threatening to withhold support [for the climate bill] unless they win safeguards for ethanol.”

From Reuters: "The legislation, having cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee, seeks to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. Agriculture [Committee]: Democrats from far...

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “corn farmers and ethanol producers know they are running a cruel hoax on the American consumer”

Walter E. Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University: "Ethanol is so costly that it wouldn't make it in a free market. It's easy to understand how the public, looking for cheaper gaso...

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “The Democrats will run their bill, the Republicans will run our bill, none of them will reach 60, and my guess is that’s where everything stops.”

Senator John Thune (R-SD), on the prospects that the House Energy bill will pass in the Senate this year: "It would definitely be the triumph of hope over experience. The Democrats will run their bill...

US Senate passes $256 billion Farm Bill; includes cellulosic ethanol, other biofuels tax credits for farmers

The US Senate passed the $256 billion Farm Bill by a vote of 79-14. The bill includes tax credits for farmers involved in cellulosic ethanol or other biofuels production. The bill moves to a confer...

Senate climate bill proceeds with markup despite Republican boycott

In Washington, the Kerry-Boxer climate bill was marked up in committee despite a boycott by Republicans. The bill, which is similar in structure to the House bill, contains  tougher greenhouse gas re...

US House and Senate Farm bills contrasted

A comparison of differences between the US House and Senate fuel bills was published in the Washington Post. Key contrasts cited by the Post included: average vehicle fuel efficiency mandates (in t...