Biofuel industry’s focus turns to House

Food producers worry an expanded ethanol mandate will drive up feed prices.

The biofuel industry’s attention turns to the House now that the Senate has finished work on an energy bill that requires dramatic increases in ethanol usage.

Senate Republicans blocked approval of a tax package that would create a 50-cent-a-gallon subsidy for ethanol made from crop residue and other sources of plant cellulose.

However, Democrats said they would continue pushing for the tax measures.

One option mentioned by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is to attach the tax package to the new farm bill.

The energy bill, approved late Thursday, would require usage of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, about six times the amount of fuel ethanol that U.S. motorists will use this year.

The mandate is intended to guarantee a growing market for conventional corn ethanol as well as jump-start production of the cellulosic version.

Des Moines Register