Ethanol Subsidies Help Industry

Millions of gallons ethanol are purchased every month but would ethanol plants be able to keep pumping without government funding Randy Schneider is the president of the North Dakota Ethanol Producers Association Schneider says consumers need to realize ethanol facilites are viable on their own He says there is a small ethanol producer credit for plants producing less than 60 million gallons a year There are counter-cylical payments available for those plants not making money but those payments have limits on how much and for how long He says many of the credits received plants never see Randy Schneider ND Ethanol Producers Assn Pres Alot of the subsidies or the blender credit for example that credit is received by the companies that actually blend the ethanol into fuel So in alot of cases the people that are getting that blender credit are oil companies that do the blending Schneider says those credits are often passed along to the one filling up the tank In October 18 5 million gallons of ethanol were sold down slightly from 19 8 million gallons in July So far in 2009 the price of ethanol has ranged between 1 65 and 2 06 a gallon