The Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, also known as VEETC, is
a Federal tax credit that went into effect on January 1, 2005. This is a credit of
$.51 for every gallon of pure ethanol blended into gasoline.
A registered blender is the only individual in the supply chain that is eligible for this
credit and all funds are paid out of the General Fund of the federal budget.
On August 8, 2005, President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R. 6) into law.
The comprehensive energy legislation includes a nationwide renewable fuels standard (RFS)
that will double the use of ethanol and biodiesel by 2012.
Achieving the 15% (Bush) goal (to replace 15% of domestic gasoline with biofuels in 10
years) would require the entire current U. S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40%
of the world's corn supply.” - Colin Carter, Ph.D., UC-Davis
1 bushel of corn can produce at least 2.8 gallons of ethanol. 650 million bushels of Iowa
corn was processed into ethanol in 2006
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From Earth Files - April 18, 2008 Davis, California - In February, I received a phone call
from a North Dakota farmer who I had talked to before on other farm issues. He said he and
his wheat farmer colleagues were having a hard time finding durham wheat seed to plant for
a crop later this year. He wondered why there was such a short seed supply. Wheat
prices have risen from $4/ a bushel in 2007 to around $25/bushel this spring of 2008.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms that global wheat stocks are at their lowest
level in 30 years, while U.S. wheat stocks are the lowest they’ve been in 60 years.
Hard red spring wheat, used especially by the baking industry, has been scarcest of all.
North Dakota leads the nation in acres devoted to certified seeds and Steve Sebesta, North
Dakota's Deputy Seed Commissioner, says hard red spring seed is down 15% from its North
Dakota volume in 2007.
East Coast bakeries have faced huge increases this year in the prices they have to pay for
flour. Len Amoroso, Executive Vice President of Amoroso's Baking Co. in Philadelphia told
The Wall Street Journal, “We are talking about prices that are just unheard of.”
The middle of February 2008, he was paying $48 per 100 pounds of flour from hard red
spring wheat, which he uses to make sandwich rolls and other bakery products. A year ago,
Mr. Amoroso said he was paying about $14.60.
Then came worldwide headlines from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warning that mounting food prices
in 37 poorer countries was going to provoke more violent riots, as already happened in
Haiti, Egypt and the Philippines. From
Earth Files News Full Story Continues Here |
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