After what has been a frenetic week for ethanol here in Washington, I just wanted to draw your attention to a couple of things.

First, the RFA has fully digested the CBO report that came out on Wednesday.  In that report, CBO relies on some questionable assumptions to make the tax credit for ethanol use seem wasteful.  Additionally, CBO didn’t provide any context in its report, such as comparing ethanol tax incentives with those that still support Big Oil’s destruction of the environment.

The RFA analysis, put together by RFA VP of Research Geoff Cooper, can be read on the E-Xchange here.

Second, I wanted to be sure you saw the release from 5 leading ag and ethanol associations reaffirming support for extending current tax incentives.  The initial release you likely saw came out before a quote was included from the American Farm Bureau Federation.  The entire release, including quotes from Farm Bureau, the National Corn Growers, the American Coalition for Ethanol, the National Sorghum Producers, and the RFA is available here.

We believe that ethanol backer and sponsor of legislation to extend the tax incentives Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota was right when answering a question on changing strategies with respect to ethanol tax incentives right now:   “Late in the legislative session, simpler is easier.”

Simply put, the RFA does not believe the industry should unilaterally disarm when we still spend billions of dollars a year to subsidize Big Oil.  We should be fighting to expand investment in renewable energies like ethanol, not simply redirecting investments that already exist.

As always, let us know if you have any questions.