GOODLATTE CALLS ON EPA TO STOP ETHANOL BLEND INCREASE

Washington, DC: Today Congressman Bob Goodlatte was joined by many other Members of Congress in sending a letter to President Barack Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson urging them not to approve the current request submitted to EPA to increase the ethanol blend in gasoline. Raising the ethanol blend above 10% could result in serious economic consequences that could negatively affect already struggling American consumers.

“Raising…

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Worried about high gas prices? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t. He wants to put back in the ban on shale oil exploration. This is from Sen Jim DeMint’s blog

We’ve just been alerted that despite House Democrats relenting on extending bans on offshore drilling and oil shale in the continuing resolution (CR) appropriations bill, Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid has decided to sneak an extension of the oil shale ban through as Congress fights over the financial bailout.

Oil shale in…

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Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) — Ford Heights Ethanol LLC applied in June 2006 to build a distillery in the Illinois town that bears its name, promising economic revival to replace abandoned houses and closed stores. Two years later, no work has begun.

For Ford Heights and other agricultural towns, the “green- collar” job revolution envisioned by federal biofuel mandates is a dream deferred. Knee-high grass and old tires cover the site as record prices for corn, the main ingredient in ethanol, discourage…

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Tue Sep 2, 2008 2:47am BST

By Emily Kaiser
ST. PAUL, Sept 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Republicans called on Monday for an end to a controversial requirement that gasoline contain a set amount of ethanol, a policy backed by the Bush administration that critics say has helped drive up world food prices.
In their 2008 platform detailing policy positions, Republicans said markets — not government — should determine how much ethanol is blended into gasoline, and pushed for development of a cellulosic version,…

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BIOFUELS: Hutchison pushes for ethanol mandate freeze

By Josh Voorhees, E&ENews PM reporter

May 19, 2008

 Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) today floated legislation [subscription required] to freeze the corn ethanol mandate at its current level of 9 billion gallons a year.

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Ryan Radia

DesMoinesRegister.com

May 12, 2008 

Iowa agriculture is booming now, but disaster looms on the horizon. An anti-ethanol media storm threatens to further destabilize commodities markets by undermining political support for biofuels.

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Check this out from Brownfield News Wire-

Ethanol’s defenders working “24-7″

Thursday, May 8, 2008, 4:47 PM

by Peter Shinn

The Nebraska Corn Board hosted National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman in Lincoln Wednesday. Tolman, who was originally scheduled to talk about corn research with University of Nebraska at Lincoln officials, added a press conference to his agenda in order to defend corn-based ethanol.

Tolman told Brownfield afterward he’s been working practically non-stop to counteract a sophisticated, multi-million dollar public relations campaign by the…

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Here’s an unofficial synopsis of the biofuels provisions in the Senate and House Farm Bills (put together by a colleague).  There are no really good synopses of the energy titles in the bills and comparisons (the Senate bill was just passed on Friday). There hasn’t been word yet on conferees on when the conference to reconcile the bills will take place.