Ethanol subsidy renewal in doubt

Des Moines Register
By PHILIP BRASHER • pbrasher@dmreg.com • July 24, 2010

Washington, D.C. — The sultry days of July in the nation's capital haven't been kind to Iowa's biofuels industry.

The ethanol industry is fracturing and under attack inside and outside the Capitol. The industry's 45-cent-a-gallon subsidy is due to end at the end of the year, but energy bills that could provide a means of extending the tax credit have been delayed, throwing the legislation's future in doubt.

"My sense all along was that it would get extended at least for a year, but I'm not so sure anymore," said David DeGennaro, a policy analyst for the Environmental Working Group, a leading critic of the subsidy.

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