Farming & Your Freedom

Just last week, I talked about the impact ethanol is having on the nation's energy programs and markets, but this week, a caution: The energy bill that will (or should) solidify ethanol's position in the pantheon of renewable fuels for the 21st Century is slow a-bornin'.
President Bush has urged the congress to pass an energy bill, specifically HIS energy bill, with the idea that a new bill will keep the nation on task in boosting energy production, and to keep the economy growing while making it less reliant on foreign imports. Sounds great, but the thicket through which it must pass is dark and dreary.
Bush told the nation in his recent State of the Union speech that he had sent an energy package to Congress four years ago, which he said would modernize the way we deliver and use energy in the U.S.
Since then, the fight over California's waiver for use of petroleum-based MTBEs has loomed and there has been much give and take over ethanol's role in the "new" energy policy. The White House has been very quiet about the MTBE issue, hoping to skip by it on the way to an energy victory for administration initiatives.
The issue is whether the oil companies that formerly produced the MTBEs should be protected from liability lawsuits because of water supplies allegedly damaged by the additive over the years. Can you say asbestos? This is a thorny thicket. MTBE clean-up has been estimated at upwards of $29 billion!
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, living up to his surname, has insisted that the oil boys get that protection and that has further "DeLayed" progress on the bill. Meanwhile, St. Pete Domenici, who heads the Senate Energy Committee, has said MTBE protection will not be in the bill because it can't pass the full Senate. These guys are both Republicans, so you can see the potential for trouble. Wait til the Democrats weigh in!
Meanwhile, ethanol supporters in the Upper Midwest wait with crossed fingers, while ethanol producers grumble about the delays and the inconsistencies of politics. The investment in ethanol production facilities is gigantic and the potential market for corn is grand, indeed. So, the inaction and inconsistency are vexing and financially scary.
Experts around the Beltway say issues such as Social Security and Iraq, response to North Korea's announcement of joining the nuke bomb club and other momentous events could further sidetrack work on the energy bill. If differences on MTBEs and other issues can't be resolved fairly soon, the 2005 version of the bill could end up in the same scrap heap with bills from Bush's first term.
For the consumer, delay is also an annoyance. Prices for gasoline at the pump remain historically high and in the Midwest they flirt often with the $2 mark. Heating fuel bills mount this winter, putting a brake on the economy.
For corn farmers and ethanol producers, the wait is tough because they have a crying need to know what the minimum use of the additive will be across the nation, and they need to receive an opened-up tax credit to jump start further investment in the farmer-owned ethanol plants that are popping up and planned for a future that is supposed to be very bright.
In 2004, the ethanol industry surpassed 3.4 billion gallons, and new plants coming on-line will certainly boost that. Solid, long-term markets are needed fairly quickly to guarantee that investors get a good shot at receiving a return on their money and the industry remains viable as an economic development tool for rural America, as well as a renewable and clean fuel for our urban cousins.

I'll see ya!