Washington Joins Governors' Ethanol Coalition

NORTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR HOEVEN TO LEAD NATIONAL ETHANOL GROUP

BISMARCK, N.D. — Governor John Hoeven has begun his term as the 2003 chairman of the 29-member Governors' Ethanol Coalition effective January 1, 2003. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is the vice chair.

Congress did not pass new energy legislation last session, but Hoeven cited fresh opportunities for the industry over the coming weeks and months, notably the introduction of a renewable fuels standard bill that would dramatically increase the amount of ethanol used in motor fuel over the next decade.

“The coalition has been working with Senator Hagel of Nebraska and Senator Daschle of South Dakota to revive the ethanol provisions in last year’s energy bill, including a new renewable fuels standard,” Hoeven said. “I believe they will soon be introducing legislation to increase ethanol use and production.”

Hoeven has invited Hagel and Daschle to meet with the member governors at the year’s first meeting of the GEC, which will be held in conjunction with a meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C. on Monday, February 24. The agenda calls for setting strategies for passing the renewable fuels standards.

A renewable fuels standard could create thousands of new jobs, and use an additional billion bushels of grain for ethanol production, while increasing our independence from foreign petroleum, according to Hoeven.

"The renewable fuels standard is good for the state, good for the environment and good for the country," Hoeven said.

The renewable fuels standard would:

Eliminate of the 2% oxygen requirement in reformulated gasoline used in smoggy cities.
Impose a ban on MTBE, a water-polluting gasoline additive.
Set a nationwide renewable fuel requirement of 5 billion gallons a year by 2012. Currently the country uses 2.3 billion gallons a year.

Other legislation reintroduced in the Senate last week would extend the 10 cent per gallon small ethanol producer tax credit to farmer-owned cooperatives and expand the number of producers eligible for the credit by doubling the production limit from 30 million gallons per year to 60 million gallons.

The Governor also commended the Bush administration for proposing to extend the ethanol income tax credit and excise tax exemption until 2010, moves he said would stimulate more ethanol use and reduce dependence on imported oil. The tax provisions were scheduled to expire in 2007.

“Now more than ever, we need to promote energy policies that will not only stimulate our economy, but also enhance our national security. There is no better way to do that than by adding value to our own natural resources and weaning ourselves from dependence on foreign oil.”

The 29-member Governors’ Ethanol Coalition also includes representatives from Brazil, Canada, Sweden and Mexico. The organization’s goals are to increase ethanol use, decrease the nation’s dependence on imported energy sources, improve the environment and stimulate the national economy.

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