Ethanol industry supporters in the Senate will attempt to offer an amendment to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) energy measure that would include funding for ethanol blender pumps and a pipeline to expand the U.S. ethanol market, among other provisions. Efforts are underway to urge Reid to allow the amendments. In early September, Reid plans to convene a Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas .
The amendment is designed in large part on a proposal by the trade group Growth Energy which calls for a gradual phasing out of the current ethanol blender credit and redirecting that funding toward infrastructure that the group said is needed to compete on a more level playing field with the oil industry.
In a July 15 proposal called the "Fueling Freedom" plan, Growth Energy said the plan would remove the current limit on how much corn-based ethanol is allowed to be used for meeting a federal mandate for biofuels under the renewable fuels standard.
The likely amendment would: (1) Mandate the production of flex fuel vehicles; (2) Require the installation of blender pumps to dispense mid- and high-level ethanol blends; and (3) Create a federal loan guarantee program for pipelines to carry ethanol from production facilities to markets.
The campaign by ethanol industry lobbyists is not limited to Reid's coming energy measure. Another possibility is more broad-based energy legislation addressed in a post-election, lame-duck session of Congress. That could include an extension of the blenders' credit, to be gradually phased out as part of the infrastructure funding proposal.
Meanwhile, ethanol industry lobbyists also have been talking to House Ways and Means Chairman Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) regarding his "green jobs" bill that would reduce the current ethanol blending incentive payment by 20 percent. The Levin bill currently does not contain language to advance ethanol infrastructure.
