The current congress apparently has no stomach for reducing taxes in any industry, including agriculture. With less than 10 months left until the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) expires, little to no progress is being made to put forward legislation to extend it even for another year.
Although the president and other elected officials in Washington recently ran campaigns emphasizing the need to expand green energy alternatives to fossil fuels, such as ethanol, the emphasis now seems to be how to generate as much tax money as possible to pay for an ever-increasing government bureaucracy payroll. You’d think that if Congress really wanted to help the American farmer and its home-grown energy source from ethanol, they would have acted by now to extend the tax credit.
No action by Congress on this front means that it might be beneficial for rural constituents to voice their concerns. If you’d like to do so, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has a Web link to expedite the process.
On the other hand, if you’d like to vent on this topic in a public forum, I’d like to hear from you, regardless if you’re for or against extending VEETC. When writing, please let me know your name, where you farm or work, what your comment is and whether or not I have permission to use your comment in a future Corn E-Digest newsletter. You can contact me (John Pocock) at: john.pocock@penton.com.
You're also welcome to write to me if you have concerns or questions about this newsletter or if you have ideas on topics you’d like to see me write about for future issues. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your readership.
