U.S. House deals blow to bioenergy market
Congress deals blow to bioenergy market
mongabay.com
May 16, 2006
In a set back to the growing biofuels market and American energy consumers, House Majority Leader John Boehner said Monday he will not push legislation to reduce the U.S. tariff on ethanol imports. Thus, the United States will keep its 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on imported ethanol despite a warning from the Department of Energy that domestic ethanol supplies will fall short this summer and will need to reply on foreign fuel.
According to a report from Reuters, “House Speaker Dennis Hastert from the big ethanol-producing state of Illinois said… he did not believe there was ‘an economic plus’ in lifting the ethanol tariff ‘right now.'”
The tariff effectively makes ethanol more costly for American consumers and stifles innovation in the bioenergy market. Countries like Brazil, which can produce sugar cane-based ethanol at a fraction of the cost and energy input of corn-based ethanol, have been eager to sell to the United States where demand for such fuels is a peak levels due to high crude oil prices.
 Sugar cane is about 7 times more energy efficient than corn. |
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This article used information from Reuters.