Biofuels for Billion$

Washington DC June 12, 2007; The AIADA newslettter reported that as Congressional demands for ethanol and other biofuels rise, there has been no discussion of the details of how to pay for the farm subsidies and other incentives.

According to The Detroit News, "If the current tax credits, grants and loan guarantees are extended, the package would cost taxpayers an additional $140 billion over the next 15 years. New proposals under consideration in Congress could raise the tab to $205 billion."

The largest single item would be an extension of an existing 51-cents-a-gallon ethanol tax credit, scheduled to expire in 2010. It would cost the federal government an extra $131 billion through 2022 under a fuel mandate that recently cleared by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"We aren't paying enough attention to the green lost to the Treasury ... in stimulating ethanol to make the environment greener," said Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

"Before we leap to extend subsidies for alternative fuels or ethanol we need to take a hard look at their impact on future deficits."