Political Quotes

“Mr. President, that is an excellent point. When I was Secretary of Agriculture, this whole debate started about food versus fuel. It was almost like there was this impression that you took that bushel of corn, you somehow burned it up to create ethanol, and that is all you got out of it. Then there was this big debate about whether that was worth it. As the Senator from South Dakota points out, a whole different process is occurring. So in our State, it is not just the dried distiller grains because to dry them down takes some energy. We have the cattle yards in close proximity to the ethanol plants. So they buy the wet mash, which is what we call it. They ship it over, they feed it immediately, and it is a wonderful product to feed to cattle. When we think about the approach the Senator from South Dakota has come up with, we realize it hits on all cylinders. It does reform the ethanol tax credit. Again, I believe the industry has come to the conclusion that is a thoughtful, reasonable step. No. 2, it invests in the blender pumps. One of the challenges I had for a long time was with the flex-fuel vehicle. I am in the State that is the second largest producer of ethanol. Yet I could not get the E-85 unless we really went out and searched for it. What if we had a pump where I could literally pull up to it and dial it up to E-85 and put that in my vehicle? So it invests in the blender pumps. It extends cellulosic tax credits for the small producers.…”