Max Baucus: “Ensuring necessary and affordable energy supplies, including ethanol-blended motor fuels and other initiatives, is…”

“Ensuring necessary and affordable energy supplies, including ethanol-blended motor fuels and other initiatives, is important to the quality of life and economic prosperity of all Americans. Policies to achieve these objectives, however, should not come at the expense of transportation infrastructure improvements. By directing 2.5 cents from the sale of gasohol to the highway trust fund, we can begin to alleviate a growing problem for many States-- lower highway trust fund contributions and therefore lower highway apportionments. Furthermore, a major goal of TEA-21 was to restore the integrity of the highway trust fund by depositing all motor fuel taxes in the trust fund and then spending that money on highway, and some transit, programs. Gasohol's 2.5 cents is the only user tax on vehicle fuel that does not flow into the highway trust fund. I am proud to have it as part of the energy tax package. I would especially like to thank Senators Harkin, Warner, and the ranking member of the Finance Committee, Senator Grassley for their help in getting the 2.5 cent provision in the energy tax package. But the 2.5 cents is just the beginning. I had planned to introduce an amendment, along with Senators Harkin and Warner, that would truly make the highway trust fund 'whole.' This amendment would keep the ethanol subsidy, but make sure that it is the Treasury's General Fund that subsidizes ethanol--not the highway trust fund.”