Letter to Roth from Rubin, Glickman, and Slater Supporting Tax Exemption for Ethanol
Letter to Roth from Rubin, Glickman, and Slater Supporting Tax Exemption for Ethanol
- AuthorsRubin, Robert E.Glickman, DanSlater, Rodney E.
- Institutional AuthorsTreasury DepartmentDepartment of AgricultureDepartment of Transportation
- Cross-ReferenceFor related text and news coverage, see the Tax Notes Today Table of
- Code Sections
- Subject Area/Tax Topics
- Index Termslegislation, taxfuel, ethanolHighway Trust Fundinvestment incentives
- Jurisdictions
- LanguageEnglish
- Tax Analysts Document NumberDoc 98-14362 (1 page)
- Tax Analysts Electronic Citation98 TNT 88-21
April 28, 1998
Honorable William V. Roth Jr.
United States Senate
104 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-0801
Dear Bill:
[1] During the conference on the surface transportation reauthorization bill, we strongly urge you to support a bipartisan provision in the Senate bill which would extend the Federal tax exemption for ethanol until the year 2007.
[2] Continued public support for the ethanol program is vital to continuing the economic and environmental contributions ethanol is making to our country. Ethanol is a clean-burning, made-in-America fuel that has created thousands of jobs and provided a multi-billion dollar boost to rural communities and family farmers. In fact, the bulk of the industry's growth today comes from small farmers joining together in cooperatives that produce and sell ethanol. The gains from ethanol go well beyond those measured in dollars. The more we produce and use domestically-produced fuel, the less reliant our nation is on oil from foreign countries.
[3] Ethanol is also good for the environment. New research shows that ethanol can reduce substantially greenhouse gas emissions compared with traditional fuels. As we more fully understand the heavy toll of carbon-based fuels on our environment, including air quality, it makes sense to invest in clean fuels that protect the environment without sacrificing our quality of life.
[4] However, without continued, strong Federal support, investments in this growing industry will dry up and ethanol's promise to our nation will evaporate, costing farmers and rural towns billions of dollars and thousands of hard-working Americans their jobs.
[5] For these reasons, we hope you will vote to include the broadly-supported Senate ethanol provisions (which were sustained on the floor by a bipartisan vote of 71 to 26) in the surface transportation reauthorization conference report.
Sincerely,
Robert E. Rubin Dan Glickman Rodney E. Slater
Secretary of the Secretary of Secretary of
Treasury Agriculture Transportation
Gov. Terry Branstad, Past Chair Gov. Mike Huckabee
Gov. Mel Carnahan Gov. Jim Edgar
Gov. Ben Nelson Gov. John Engler
Gov. George Voinovich Gov. Pedro Rossello
Gov. Ann Carlson Gov. Marc Racicot
Gov. Tommy Thompson Gov. Bill Janklow
Gov. Ed Schafer Gov. Roy Romer
- AuthorsRubin, Robert E.Glickman, DanSlater, Rodney E.
- Institutional AuthorsTreasury DepartmentDepartment of AgricultureDepartment of Transportation
- Cross-ReferenceFor related text and news coverage, see the Tax Notes Today Table of
- Code Sections
- Subject Area/Tax Topics
- Index Termslegislation, taxfuel, ethanolHighway Trust Fundinvestment incentives
- Jurisdictions
- LanguageEnglish
- Tax Analysts Document NumberDoc 98-14362 (1 page)
- Tax Analysts Electronic Citation98 TNT 88-21