Posted on 07/20/2010 9:09:10 AM PDT by Willie Green
Theres not much that environmentalists and the people who run giant animal feedlots can agree on, except when it comes to the $6 billion the government hands over annually to the ethanol industry.
Late last week, all six of the countrys big meat lobbying groups called for the Senate to get rid of both the generous tax subsidies for corn-based ethanol and the import restrictions on foreign ethanol. And today environmentalists are busy touting a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that backs up what theyve been saying for years that government support of ethanol is an expensive, energy-intensive way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that doesnt make much economic sense.
Of course, meat producers and groups like the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) want ethanol subsidies to go away for very different reasons. The meat industry, which relies on corn for animal feed, doesnt like the way that rising ethanol production has sent corn prices soaring. In a letter to Sen. Harry Reid and Sen. Mitch McConnell, the American Meat Institute, the National Cattlemens Beef Association, the National Chicken Council, the National Meat Association, the National Pork Producers Council and the National Turkey Federation describe the huge financial hits the industry has suffered in recent years:
(Excerpt) Read more at industry.bnet.com ...
Ethanol subsidies are like rail subsidies - they distort market forces and cause more problems than they solve.
It’s amazing how a guy can be against ethanol sibsidies and for rail subsidies. I’m against both.
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