Federal Ethanol Tax Credit Expires this Sunday

[vacanefan]

This Sunday, the federal ethanol tax credit expires. What this means is that it will cost suppliers 4.5 cents per gallon more for gas with 10% ethanol in it. Expect this cost increase to be directly passed on to you. This tax credit was put in place by the government as an incentive to get on board with the ethanol program. Now our country is committed to the product and the tax credit is expiring. I have never agreed with the program, but now we have it (ethanol) and I don't expect it to go anywhere.

--Jeff

[Coyote Chris]

Kansas city star......E. Thomas McClanahan The Kansas City Star This has to be one of the most under-covered stories arising out of Congress’ end-of-the-year scramble: The lawmakers allowed the tax credit for ethanol blenders to expire, along with a tariff that effectively kept out more efficiently produced foreign ethanol. The measures died from inaction; they were scheduled to expire and Congress let them die. The handwriting was on the wall anyway. In June, the Senate voted 73-27 to terminate the subsidy and tariff. The blenders’ subsidy extended a 45-cent subsidy per gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline. The tariff ended a 54-cent-per-gallon tax on imported ethanol, mainly from Brazil — which makes the stuff much more efficiently from sugar cane. Will this kill the domestic industry? Not likely. Still in force is a federal mandate that requires a minimum amount of ethanol be used each year. In 2015, 15 billiion gallons must be used. The mandate rises to 36 billion gallons by 2036. The blenders’ subsidy cost the taxpayers about $6 billion annually, and by some estimates the program, over its 30-year history, transferred some $45 billion to the ethanol industry. It’s always good news when a special-interest tax loophole comes to an end, especially one as wasteful as this one.

Read more here: http://voices.kansascity.com/entries...#storylink=cpy

[BobAgain]

Heck, I was half hopeful as I read that until the bit about a mandated volume requirement. Alas.

[Coyote Chris]

Hey Bob, did you hear me banging my head against the wall? Maybe the stations should pay US to buy that garbage and offer real gas....
Anyone know if the Brazilians are stripping the rain forests to grow sugarcane to make ethanol?

[Phil Tarman]

Anyone know if the Brazilians are stripping the rain forests to grow sugarcane to make ethanol?

Chris, I actually read that the Brazilian rain forest made something of a comeback in 2010. I'm not sure how they measure that, but it sounds like good news.

[Sailariel]

I think that the Brazilians are smarter--or less greedy--than our corn farmers. Corn really depletes the soil wicked bad. Sugar Cane not only makes better Ethanol (Great Vodka) but it is easier on the soil and yields more volume per acre.

[Coyote Chris]

I thought I read that the reason they are so big into ethanol was that they have an enzime that will break sugarcane down cheeply, enabling them to run their cars on it in the warm climate and sell their crude oil for cash.
It will be interesting to see what happens to E85 here. I think there is one station in Spokane, actually. I think the only reason people used it was the government subsidy making up for the crappy milage.

[Tattoo Paul]

It seems as though the gas stations around here have already jacked up the price by 5 or 6 cents a gallon in the past week.

[Phil Tarman]

Ours are down about 20 cents in the past three weeks. I bought gas in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, this afternoon for $2.799, the lowest I've paid in a long time.

[FalconAF]

The price of ethanol is going up, and the state of Utah abolished Happy Hours. What is the world coming to???

Oh heck...could be worse. Some country got rid of Friday's this week, too.