Conferees Put Full Ethanol Funding Back Into Budget

The House initially fully funded the State Ethanol Incentive Fund – a program designed to encourage the corn-based fuel’s production. But State Senators then took the full funding out of the Agriculture Appropriations bill. Now, a conference committee has put full funding plus back payments to ethanol makers back into the proposal. Representative Steve Hobbs of Mexico says with ethanol costing only about a $1.25 a gallon to produce, consumers would see a eight to 10 cent reduction in the cost of a gallon of 10-percent ethanol gasoline. Hobbs admits there’s a lot of time between now and Friday’s budget deadline and anything could happen to put the fund back into jeopardy. But he has assurances from legislative leaders that won’t happen.