World's ethanol lobbyists not so much force to be reckoned with

World's ethanol lobbyists not so much a force to be reckoned with

Some $2.3 billion in federal support would flow to biofuels under the Senate farm bill, half of it to develop cellulose as a feedstock for fuel ethanol. Ag Committee chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the bill "puts us on a path" to produce 60 billion gallons of biofuels by 2030, roughly 10 times current output.
        At this time, the bill is not written to include a biofuels blending mandate (the Senate energy bill wants to up blending to 36 billion gallons by 2022), but that isn't stopping the farm lobby.
    In fact, the world's ethanol lobbyists took some time from squabbling over protectionist regimes and conducting ridiculous polls to issue a a rare joint statement from Amsterdam yesterday.
        "As oil prices soar to $100 per barrel and declining petroleum reserves become ever more costly to extract, it is vital that we move quickly to expand the production and availability of biofuels such as ethanol," goes the statement by the heads of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association; the European Bioethanol Fuel Association; the Renewable Fuels Association; and Brazil's Sugar Cane Industry Association.
        Groups such as these are, as of late, either just making a poor showing, or really do have nothing left except demonstrating how confused everybody is. Meanwhile, environmental, economic and social welfare groups, once supportive of ethanol, are now mobilized against it, and using scientific method, however antiquated, to raise concerns that rainforests will be pushed into crop production, food prices will keep rising, and the world's poor will shoulder the burden.