US Bolsters Ethanol Incentives
26 October 2010 The US government is implementing programs that will help the US ethanol industry expand. Agriculture Secretary discussed government programs and incentives during a presentation at the National Press Club in Washington last week.
“Incentives helped build the biofuel industry and incentives need to continue,” Vilsack said. “Congress should start by reinstating the Biodiesel Production Tax Credit and providing a fiscally responsible short-term extension of the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. At the same time, we need to begin to think about reforms to the ethanol credit program to make it more efficient and effective at addressing the full range of challenges we face in meeting our goals for traditional and next generation biofuels.”
Vilsack said 12,000 US jobs were lost when during the contraction of the ethanol industry during the last couple years. He also stressed it was critical to expand the availability of higher blends of ethanol, and he announced a subsidy for new biomass cultivars that might be appropriate for ethanol production.
“As research identifies alternative feed stocks and as biorefineries are built to process those feed stocks, producers must be encouraged to grow the feed stocks. The Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) will provide that assistance …The assistance could be as much as 75% of the cost of establishing the new crop as well as annual rental payments to help cover the costs of transitioning from current cash crops.”
Click here to read Vilsack’s full comments.
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