UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS Extension will be different after the current reorganization, but it will continue helping Illinois residents solve their problems. ...........3
ETHANOL IS MAKING a comeback, but a number of things, including an “international land use wall,” could stunt future growth potential. ..........................................4
THE OHIO LIVESTOCK industry is preparing for another ballot challenge from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). ...............................................8
Monday, June 21, 2010
Two sections Volume 38, No. 25
Hope not lost for biodiesel credit extension? BY MARTIN ROSS FarmWeek
The biodiesel industry again was disappointed last week as Senate leaders balked at attempting to move a huge, long-delayed federal tax extenders bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) determined he would be unable to garner votes needed for “cloture,” a process that limits new amendments and allows 30 hours of debate over the controversial extenders bill. The
measure includes retroactive extension of a $1-per-gallon biodiesel blenders tax credit that expired Jan. 1.
FarmWeekNow.com Listen to Matt Kaye’s latest report from Washington about the tax extenders bill at FarmWeekNow.com.
Reid withdrew his cloture measure, but later lawmakers appeared open to a deal that would trim some $20 billion from the massive package.
However, Republicans blocked what they deemed a weakened jobs bill, aided by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). “Don’t give up yet; things are not bleak,” Renewable Energy Group (REG) spokesman Alicia Clancy nonetheless told FarmWeek. REG owns Danville’s former Blackhawk Biofuels biodiesel plant. The credit is a key incentive for fuel distributors to purchase biodiesel, and a number
Sobering future previewed on the state budget front BY KAY SHIPMAN FarmWeek
Periodicals: Time Valued
No one could blame Illinois Agricultural Legislative Roundtable members last week for feeling downcast after presentations about the state’s budget and fiscal outlook. Many agriculture programs won’t know how much money they’ll have to spend until Comptroller Dan Hynes certifies the state’s debt by July 8, Illinois Agriculture Director Tom Jennings told
assembled ag leaders in Springfield. “So until we get a benchmark by July 8, we don’t know what appropriation will be available for the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) Tom Jennings and its partners,” Jennings added. “It’s a budget in motion until we figure it out.” Jennings’ report on the current fiscal year was just as sobering. Until June 11, two-thirds of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) hadn’t received any funding for operations, while the remaining third had received only two-thirds of their operations budget, according to Jennings. “The odd man out is the University of Illinois (Extension). They’ve received zero dollars,” Jennings said. Although the director said he’d been talking with the interim head of Extension about the situation, he added, “There’s no good news yet, but I’m working on it.”
The ag director also warned some entities waiting for state funding may have to continue waiting. Lapse-period spending has been extended, and those who don’t receive their funding in the current fiscal year may receive it in the future, Jennings offered. The state uses lapse-period spending to carry over bills from one fiscal year to the next. Usually, lapse-period spending occurs during the first 60 days of the fiscal year from prior appropriations. Some people have been waiting even longer than that for their money. Jennings noted the state is finally paying the horse race winners from the 2009 DuQuoin State Fair. The director urged nonagency programs that receive funding through IDOA’s budget to work together and not fight among each other over a lump-sum appropriation that was less than was sought. “We need to keep it going and sustained until the economy turns around and we can make good things happen,” Jennings said. See Budget, page 3
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of plants nationwide have been forced to lay off workers or shut down over the last six months. Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw argued that “instead of kicking tar balls on beaches, President Obama ought to be kicking the backside of Congress to reinstate the biodiesel tax incentive.” Compromise proposals on the Hill include funding extenders through higher per-barrel taxes on the oil industry — a current target for the administration and Congress amid the Gulf oil spill. While Medicare funding issues dominated Senate discussions, Clancy was hopeful bipartisan negotiations eventually could generate the 60 votes necessary for cloture and
action on extenders. As Obama pushed for green energy development in the face of the Gulf disaster, National Biodiesel Board CEO Joe Jobe warned “further inaction by Congress ... is causing the loss of jobs every day, derailing investment in its first successful advanced biofuel.” That impact was a key point of concern for ethanol producers gathered last week in St. Louis and facing year-end expiration of a similar ethanol credit. “This is absolutely all about the politics and nothing to do with biodiesel,” Clancy said. “We’re lost in the midst of a giant political process. We’re a leaf in the forest, a teeny-tiny fly on a buffalo. But it looks like things are making some progress.”
CARING MESSAGE
Traffic whizzes by one of two pro-livestock billboards that have been erected along Interstate 80 near Ottawa through the efforts of the Illinois Farm Bureau Public Relations Action Team. The billboards, one eastbound at mile marker 94 and one westbound (shown here) at mile marker 102, will remain up until August. (Photo by Ken Kashian)
Illinois Farm Bureau®on the web: www.ilfb.org