Senate Ag Committee on Ethanol to Be Held in Omaha

By Joseph Morton, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Jul. 30–WASHINGTON — The role of ethanol in rising food costs will be at the heart of a Senate Agriculture Committee field hearing in Omaha next month.

In announcing the Aug. 18 hearing, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said Wednesday that the committee chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, agreed to hold it in the face of what Nelson called an ongoing “smear campaign” against ethanol. Harkin plans to attend, an aide said.

Ethanol plants have been consuming more of the country’s corn crop, driving up prices for corn and other grains. That, in turn, affects the price of other agricultural commodities such as meat, dairy products and eggs, because farmers use corn to feed livestock.

Ethanol critics say federal requirements and subsidies that support the renewable fuel should be cut to provide relief from higher food prices.

Supporters, including Nelson and Harkin, say rising food prices are more the result of high oil prices than anything else. If anything, ethanol is helping to keep prices down by preventing the price of gas from climbing even higher, they say.

The list of witnesses has yet to be determined, but Nelson said he doesn’t want the Omaha hearing to be blindly supportive of ethanol.

“We don’t want it to be a pro-ethanol hearing but a pro-fact hearing,” Nelson said. “American farmers are producing enough for our food and feed needs, and they’re producing enough to also help with our country’s massive fuel problems.”

—–

To see more of the Omaha World-Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.omaha.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.