Ag secretary backs ethanol mandate

Daily Herald (Chicago)

Bloomberg News
Published: 9/8/2008 3:28 PM

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said the country should maintain incentives to promote its renewable fuels policy until the industry is "mature."

The Energy and Security Act of 2007, which President George W. Bush signed into law in December, requires the U.S. to use 9 billion gallons of renewable fuels such as ethanol this year. The mandate climbs to 15 billion gallons by 2015. Republicans last week released a platform that said they would end the requirement.

"I believe those incentives ought to stay there until the industry is mature," Schafer said today at a Society of American Business Editors and Writers event in Kansas City, Missouri.

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