WASHINGTON, D.C. – American farmers will have to wait until the new
Congress convenes next year for a new U.S. energy policy expected to
double the market for corn-based ethanol.
The Senate, deadlocked for months in talks with the House of
Representatives, particularly over provisions dealing with oil drilling
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, agreed Nov. 13 there was not
enough time left to wrap up the bill in the current congressional
session.
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The bill will die formally when Congress adjourns.
The delay was a big disappointment to farmers who hoped for a
congressional mandate to more than double the market for corn-based
ethanol.
Ethanol would be a prime component in any renewable fuels standard, or
RFS, section included in the bill, and an ethanol mandate would more
than double the use of the fuel.
While House and Senate negotiators were willing to agree on a
19-billion litre mandate for ethanol, they disagreed on when. The
Senate proposed that it take effect in 2012, the House in 2014.
National Corn Growers Association vice-president Jon Doggett and chair
Tim Hume, a Colorado farmer, said support for an RFS remained strong.
If Congress has to start again on an energy bill next year, ethanol
will be in a strong position, they said.
“The groups that supported a renewable fuels standard are still in
place,” Hume said. “Just because Washington doesn’t have its act
together doesn’t mean people will start walking away from it.”
California lawmakers and some environmental groups oppose the ethanol
guarantee for a variety of reasons. They say fuel prices will rise if
ethanol is required as an ingredient and that ethanol is not a clean
fuel. Proponents disagree.
