November, 16 2010, 03:13pm EDT
Will the Real Ethanol Beneficiaries Please Stand Up?
It’s Time for Congress to Stop Sending Billions of Taxpayer Dollars To Corn Growers, Big Oil Companies
WASHINGTON
This
month's election is being called a referendum on taxpayer-funded
bailouts and wasteful federal spending, but Congress may not have gotten
the message. It's poised to approve billions in additional federal
subsidies to the corn ethanol industry in the lame duck session that
began this week.
The subsidies that flow to the ethanol producers come through a tax
credit known as the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, or VEETC. It
will expire at year's end unless Congress acts.
An Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of data compiled by the
industry's own trade association, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA),
revealed some interesting facts about the state of the corn ethanol
industry and just who's getting the taxpayer-funded subsidy dollars.
Eight years ago, there were 61 plants producing ethanol to blend with
gasoline in the United States; today there are about 200. And eight
years ago, 13 percent of those plants used a feedstock other than corn;
today, just 5 percent rely primarily on alternatives like wood waste and
sugar cane.
Back in 2002, a bushel of corn cost $2.37; today the price has almost
tripled to $5.86. And over that same period, farmers went from owning
about half of all ethanol plants to just 19 percent today. So who is
collecting the lion's share of the tax-dollar subsidies if it's not the
family farmer? The oil companies.
Designed to make the fuel more cost competitive, the tax credit pays
refiners, including BP, Shell and Exxon, 45 cents a gallon to blend
ethanol with gasoline. Oil and gas companies get this tax subsidy
regardless of the price of ethanol or how large their profits are.
"While millions of Americans continue to struggle in the economic
downturn, multinational oil companies could continue to get billions in
taxpayer dollars if Congress caves," said Sheila Korth, a legislative
and policy analyst for EWG.
How times have changed! Eight years ago, the ethanol industry was
keeping up the pretence that corn ethanol was a "bridge" to advanced
biofuels. But figures like these, derived from the Renewable Fuels
Association's Annual own Industry Outlook, tell a different story.
Subsidized corn growers and corn ethanol producers and blenders are
reaping big profits, but the corn ethanol "bridge" will become a
"destination" if the industry gets its wish from Congress.
The full analysis by EWG's Korth can be found here: https://www.ewg.org/report/Will-the-Real-Ethanol-Beneficiaries-Please-Stand-Up
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Biden Commutes 1,500 Sentences and Issues 39 Pardons—But Leaves 40 People on Death Row
"State-sanctioned murder is not justice, and President Biden has an opportunity and an obligation to save lives," Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley said earlier this week.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
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According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
In a statement on Thursday, Biden said that he has "the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
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Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures to pass audits and various alarming policies, 81 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted with 200 Republicans on Wednesday to advance a $883.7 billion annual defense package.
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Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs and co-founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said in a joint statement, "Time and time again, Congress seems to be able to find the funds necessary to line the pockets of defense contractors while neglecting the problems everyday Americans face here at home."
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