Climate of Our Future

From: Climate Crisis Coalition

Concerns Mounting over Ethanol Subsidies in Current Draft of 2007 Farm Bill
Press Release, Food & Water Watch, July 18, 2007
“The future of biofuels is not in corn, says a new report released today by Food & Water Watch, the Network for New Energy Choices, and the Vermont Law School Energy Institute. The corn ethanol refinery industry, the beneficiary of new renewable fuel targets in the proposed energy legislation as well as proposed loan guarantee subsidies in the 2007 Farm Bill, will not significantly offset U.S. fossil fuel consumption without unacceptable environmental and economic consequences. ‘Rural communities won’t benefit from the Farm Bill becoming a fuel bill. In the long run, family farmers and the environment will be losers, while agribusiness, whose political contributions are fueling the ethanol frenzy, will become the winners,’ said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter… The groups made recommendations on U.S. biofuels policy including the following proposed reforms to ethanol provisions of the 2007 Farm Bill: 1) Biofuels promotion policies should be tied to a sustainable fuel standard… 2) Any ethanol funding should focus on research and development of cellulosic ethanol… 3) No coal-fired ethanol refineries should be eligible for federal subsidies… 4) Loan guarantees for refineries should be directed to locally owned facilities that benefit farmers and rural communities.”
Report Summary
The full report: The Rush to Ethanol (link to 78 page PDF file).