Grassley Rightly Say Cut Budget and Ethanol Subsidies

Cutting the deficit is more important than protecting the ethanol industry if it comes to that, says Sen. Chuck Grassley, long the biofuel industry's most powerful ally in Congress.

Grassley said Tuesday that he would vote for a deficit-cutting bill even it includes two House-passed provisions that are intended to slow the ethanol industry's growth.

"As significant as it is to me because I'm a great ethanol fan, if in fact those things were in the bill to cut the deficit ... I'd have to bite the bullet," Grassley said.

A House-passed bill would cut federal spending by $60 billion this year. It includes a measure that would block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from increasing the amount of ethanol that can be added to gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent. A second measure would bar subsidies for retrofitting service stations to sell higher amounts of ethanol.





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