Ethanol industry working to present united front to keep federal subsidy from dying at year's end

As ethanol producers fight to preserve their government subsidies, they are trying to present a united front after infighting within the industry emerged during the summer. "Representatives of groups representing the ethanol industry and corn growers have been meeting weekly, including several times at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, or talking by phone to resolve differences and strategize how to save the biofuel's federal subsidy," Phillip Brasher of The Des Moines Register reports. The industry "is kind of a dysfunctional family at the moment," David Nelson, longtime board member of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, told Brasher.

The industry split emerged when "Growth Energy proposed to phase out the 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit and use the money to build ethanol pipelines and retrofit service stations to sell higher ethanol blends," Brasher writes. Groups including the RFA opposed Growth's plan, "saying that the subsidy is still needed and that there wasn't time for Congress to deal with the Growth Energy proposal," Brasher writes. The subsidy is scheduled to expire at year's end unless renewed by Congress.

"Growth Energy is now calling for an extension of the subsidy," Brasher writes. "But some of the subsidy's critics have used the original proposal as ammunition." Darrin Ihnen, outgoing president of the Corn Growers, told Brasher all the Growth Energy proposal did was "confuse the message." He explained, "What (Growth Energy) said is that we don't need the tax credit anymore, if we get market access," Ihnen said, referring to the need for ethanol pumps. "The media really didn't pick up on that part of the message." (Read more)