Cheers greeted the Senate's Thursday 73-27 vote for an amendment to eliminate a tax credit for blenders of ethanol and a tariff against foreign imports of the product. But the vote will end neither. That's because the underlying development legislation to which the amendment is attached won't make it through Congress.
Promoted by anti-hunger groups, eco-advocates and budget hawks, the Senate vote is nonetheless widely seen as an important indicator of future direction. A potential compromise reportedly being worked on supports a three-year phase-out of both the credit and the tariff, which expire at the end of this year.
Nathaneal Greene at the Natural Resources Defense Council blogged:
Today’s vote is a victory for taxpayers and the environment. The message from Senators on both sides of the aisle was clear: U.S. taxpayers will no longer tolerate being forced to line the pockets of big oil companies and old corn ethanol plants while getting nothing in return but dirtier air, dirtier water, and higher prices at the grocery store.
That optimistic assessment remains to be seen. And there could be a downside.
Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican and a staunch defender of ethanol and wind tax benefits, said the vote would encourage lawmakers to zero in on other energy tax breaks.
“Before the year’s out, you’re probably going to have people attack wind and solar and biomass and biodiesel,” he said in an interview.
Perhaps. But there is no doubt that the current policy not only makes no utilitarian sense but is otherwise objectionable. Joe Romm says:
[I]n a world of blatantly increasing food insecurity—driven by population, dietary trends, rising oil prices, and growing climate instability—America’s policy of burning one third of our corn crop in our engines (soon to be 37% or more) is becoming increasingly untenable, if not unconscionable.
Untenable, unconscionable and obscene.
