Farm Bill To Include 'Seeds' For Cellulosic Ethanol

May 17th, 2007 :: 6:10 PM

The House Agriculture Committee will start writing a farm bill next week without knowing how to pay for some of the panel’s new initiatives.
“Like farmers we’re going to plant the seeds, and we’re going to hope it rains, and we’re going to hope the prices are good, and we’re going to hope there is a market,” says the panel’s chairman, Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn.

One of those seeds the committee intends to plant is a $5 billion package of programs to develop a cellulosic ethanol industry.

Technically, the money will come from a bill that the House passed in January to roll back subsidies to the oil industry. But there’s a big problem with that: The legislation hasn’t gone anywhere in the Senate. No matter. Under House rules, since the legislation has passed the House it can be counted as a funding source for the farm bill, Peterson says.

http://blogs.dmregister.com/?p=5934