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Consumers Can Blame Congress If Gas
Prices Go Up By More Than $1.00 Per Gallon If Congress Fails To
Extend Ethanol Tax Credits and Incentives |
LINCOLN, Neb. – Dec. 7, 2010
–American Corn Growers Foundation (ACGF) spokesman Dan McGuire
today warned that American consumers will be negatively impacted
by higher gasoline prices if current ethanol tax credits and
incentives are not renewed. “Members of Congress working against
the extension of the ethanol tax credit and ethanol import
tariff should think very hard before they take steps that will
increase gasoline prices by even more than $1 per gallon on the
200 million registered drivers and the fuel they buy for their
231 million registered vehicles in this country,” said Dan
McGuire of the ACGF. “Eliminating ethanol from the U.S. fuel
supply would instantly cause gasoline prices to soar an
additional $1.10 per gallon over the current prices, according
to economist John Urbanchuck, in a 2008 report. That would be a
big economic hit for the car-driving American public and why
would Congress want to be responsible for that?”
“Isn’t Congress supposed to be protecting and enacting policies
that create jobs and stimulate the economy?” McGuire asked. “If
Congress is serious about helping American taxpayers and
American workers they will defend the nearly 500,000
ethanol-related jobs supported by ethanol plants built in 2008
alone and do everything they can to create new jobs. Weakening
federal ethanol credits and incentives goes in absolutely the
wrong direction. Furthermore, the General Accounting Office
estimates that a dramatic decline in ethanol production would
cost the U.S. taxpayers $6.3 billion annually, so why would
Congress go in that direction?”
“Why isn’t Congress outraged about the $15.3 billion Foreign Tax
Credit, a U.S. tax break that subsidizes foreign oil production,
or the $72 billion in overall U.S. subsidies that the fossil
fuel industry received between 2002 and 2008? That’s the amount
of subsidies that the federal government provided according to
research by the Environmental Law Institute and the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars,” added McGuire.
The Congressional Research Service reported in 2007 that the
U.S. had spent over $507 billion on Middle East military costs
in the previous six years and according to General Wesley Clark,
U.S. Army (Ret.) Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, “Ethanol
is America’s best renewable fuel because it can help create
green-collar jobs, boost our domestic economy, and improve our
environment right now. By expanding our use of ethanol today, we
can make immediate progress in three vital areas: greater energy
independence, a stronger American economy and a cleaner
environment. High-tech and homegrown ethanol has created
hundreds of thousands of jobs over the past five years, and we
can create even more.”
“Congress also should get with the renewable fuels and American
job creation agenda by promoting federal incentives for blender
pumps so Americans can use even more ethanol and have ready
access to higher blends that will complement the renewable fuels
standard and make maximum use of ethanol as a renewable,
job-generating fuel. Achieving a renewable fuels standard (RFS)
target of 36 billion gallons yearly will increase annual
household income by $24.6 billion, create 1.18 million jobs and
$222.6 billion in federal tax revenues. Additionally, according
to economist Urbanchuck’s report, the American ethanol industry
has generated an estimated $33.4 billion in federal tax revenues
and nearly $17 billion in state and local tax revenues since
1978 – a 5 to 1 return on investment of the federal tax
incentive. When you have federal incentive programs that
generate a 5 to 1 return is it not obviously logical to
strengthen, not weaken them?” concluded McGuire. |
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