Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is co-sponsoring an ethanol bill being introduced today which he says is designed to build our country’s energy security and create jobs. Grassley, a Republican, calls it a bipartisan bill, which he’s authored with Senator Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota.
Grassley says, “Our bill would extend four policies for ethanol production through 2015 including the ethanol excise tax credit.” The bill also includes a tax credit for small ethanol producers, a tax credit for cellulosic producers and an ethanol import tariff. Grassley says the corn-based fuel has become a vital, renewable element in the economies of our state and our nation.
“In Iowa, we know that biofuels offer quite an alternative to foreign oil and they generate economic activity in the United States,” Grassley says. “Today, ethanol makes up almost 10% of the U.S. fuel supply.” He says the lapse of a similar tax credit for biodiesel, which expired at the end of 2009, cost 29,000 jobs and has put 23,000 more jobs at risk. Grassley says they can’t risk a repeat with ethanol.
“A recent independent study found that the failure to extend this tax credit and the secondary tariff would result in the loss of about 112,000 jobs nationwide and would reduce ethanol production by about 40%,” Grassley says. “Iowa would lose the most jobs, nearly 30,000.” He says ethanol is good for America’s rural economies and it replaces oil that would otherwise be imported from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Venezuela.
