"If the holdup on the renewable energy Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit is the budget, why not revisit the ethanol subsidies?"Today Reuters is reporting:
Ethanol tax incentives and crop subsidies including "direct" payments to farmers could be reduced as part of the new U.S. farm law, a House chairman and two Senate staff workers said on Thursday.
House Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson told reporters that $1 billion in cuts in commodity programs over 10 years was an element in the House proposal to offset a spending increase of $9.5 billion. Commodity programs include the direct payments of $5.2 billion guaranteed annually to farmers.
Roughly $6 billion of the offsets would come from a new brokerage basis reporting requirement or similar revenue source, said Peterson, Minnesota Democrat. He spoke to reporters after a meeting of senior House and Senate farm-bill negotiators. The brokerage basis reporting rule would require brokers to report the basis under which securities transactions are made, facilitating tax collection....MORE
The money isn't going to the ITC/PTC but it shows a small shift in thinking toward ethanol. Great minds and all that.
