Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce the Imported Ethanol Parity Act of 2008. This legislation is cosponsored by Senators Gregg, Cantwell, Allard and Collins. First, let me explain what this bill does. The Imported Ethanol Parity Act instructs the President to lower the ethanol import tariff, so that it is no higher than the subsidy for blending ethanol into gasoline. This legislation is necessary because the Farm Bill extended the tariff for two more years at $0.54 per gallon, even though the Farm Bill reduced the ethanol blending subsidy to $0.45 per gallon. In effect, the Farm Bill has turned the tariff from an ``offset'' into a true trade barrier of at least $0.09 per gallon. The Ethanol tariff poses many problems. It increases the cost of Gasoline in the United States by making ethanol more expensive. It prevents Americans from importing ethanol made from sugarcane. Sugar ethanol is the only available transportation fuel that works in today's cars and emits considerably less lifecycle greenhouse gas than gasoline; it taxes imports from our friends in Brazil, India, and Australia, while oil and gasoline imports from OPEC enter the United States tax free. It hinders the emergence of a global biofuels marketplace through which countries with a strong biofuel crop could sell fuel to countries that suffered drought or other agricultural difficulties in the same crop year.”