The Hill News

Amidst the recent debate over the ethanol tax credit, the broader vision of our country’s energy future seems to have been forgotten by many.



But the ethanol industry and America’s farmers have not forgotten that vision.



We remain focused on a future where every driver in America can pull up to a fuel station and choose for themselves how much or how little ethanol they would like to use.



We are focused on a future where the oil industry no longer has a choke-hold on the entire fuel distribution web that blankets the nation.



We are focused on freedom.

So how does the ethanol industry reconcile the concept of “freedom” with that of “tax credit?”  It is a fair question.



The tax credit was deemed necessary in the first place to offset some of the advantages enjoyed by an unchallenged oil industry. Priorities other than cost - such as jobs, economic development, national security and the environment! - were deemed important enough to support developing a robust renewable fuel industry.



The oil industry has been entrenched as the dominant transportation fuel for almost a century. It receives subsidies and tax breaks like no one else, subsidies and breaks that are written into the tax code with no sunset, whereas the renewable fuel industry has to come back and ask for extensions, reigniting the debate every couple of years.



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