Ethanol Juggernaut Moves Through D.C.

Graphic shows annual corn production and ethanol use; 1c x 3 inches; 46.5 mm x 76 mm (Carrie Osgood - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Nebraska hog producer Joy Philippi says livestock farmers "are having jitters" over ethanol, worried there won't be enough corn left for the pigs.

She might as well be talking to a wall.

There is an ethanol juggernaut moving through Congress that will call for a sevenfold increase in biofuels production _ almost all of it ethanol _ over the next 15 years. Presidential primaries, anger over gasoline prices and global warming make ethanol a potent political issue for both parties.

Just two years ago Congress directed that oil refiners more than double their use of corn-produced ethanol as a gasoline additive to 7.5 billion gallons a year. Lawmakers' sights are now set on several times that amount.

A bill expected to win bipartisan approval Wednesday from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would require 36 billion gallons of ethanol be used annually by 2022, including 20 billion gallons made from feedstock other than corn _ such as switch grasses, wood chips, corn stems and leaves.

At the same time, lawmakers are considering everything from loan guarantees and tax breaks for research and building cellulosic ethanol plants to making oil companies put ethanol pumps at retail service stations. They're looking to automakers to fine-tune cars and reduce the efficiency loss when using gasoline blends with higher percentages of ethanol.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wants an ethanol package ready by Memorial Day for a Senate vote shortly afterward. A parallel track has another group of senators assembling a package of pro-ethanol tax incentives.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has told her committee chairmen she also wants an "energy security" package with ethanol as its linchpin ready for a floor vote this summer.

A confluence of issues is behind the rush for ethanol: $3 a gallon gasoline, demand for greater energy security, concern over relying on oil imports from politically volatile regions, and growing worries about carbon dioxide from fossil fuels _ the principal "greenhouse" gas linked to global warming.

There is hardly a lawmaker _ or presidential aspirant _ who hasn't signed onto some sort of ethanol promotion.

"We counted 145 bills that deal with ethanol or renewable fuels in some capacity," says Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents the ethanol industry.

The bill before the Senate Energy Committee, in addition to setting aggressive ethanol production increases, would provide $250 million for each of six renewable fuels plants. Co-written by the panel's Democratic chairman and senior Republican, respectively New Mexico Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, it also calls for a 50 percent increase in government research on producing ethanol from non-corn feedstocks.