Taxpayers for Common Sense worked with Congressional allies to get 73 Representatives to sign a letter last week asking Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to allow ethanol subsides set to expire “to do just that and resist calls to expand or create new ethanol subsidies in the eleventh hour.”
Also, at 3:30 PM today, Taxpayers for Common Sense will particpate in a briefing on ethanol titled, “Beyond the VEETC: The Future of Corn Ethanol Subsidies,” sponsored by Representatives Flake (R-AZ) and Crowley (D-NY). Our Vice President, Steve Ellis, will join representatives from the Environmental Working Group, ActionAid, and the National Chicken Council. You can find information about that hearing here.
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December 9, 2011 Dear Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi: As the first session of the 112th Congress comes to a close, we urge you to allow ethanol subsidies set to expire to do just that and to resist calls to expand or create new ethanol subsidies in the eleventh hour. The ethanol industry has benefited from a tax credit incentivizing production, an import tariff shielding it from competition, and a renewable fuels mandate creating demand. Both the volumetric ethanol excise tax credit and the prohibitive import tariff are set to expire at the end of this year. These benefits were not permanent in nature for a reason. Congress anticipated the ethanol industry one day being sufficiently mature to stand on its own. It is difficult to make the argument that this day has not arrived. With widespread concern across a spectrum of issues including anti-hunger, fiscal, environmental, agricultural, good governance, and others, extending a billion dollar ethanol tax credit would appear out of the question and the prohibitive import tariff should be allowed to expire as well. In addition, we urge you to oppose efforts to create new or expand existing subsidies that benefit the ethanol industry in the waning days of this session. For example, there has been the suggestion that the renewable fuels standard be revised to allow corn-based fuels to qualify as an advanced biofuel. Taxpayers deserve to have the future of federal ethanol policy fully vetted under regular order, an opportunity that is unlikely in the last days of the session. Sincerely,
Jeff Flake (AZ-6)
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