2010 Green Scissors Campaign Seeks to Cut Federal Budget for Biofuels, Agriculture, and Other Areas
(Grainnet) The Green Scissors campaign, a diverse coalition of taxpayer, environmental and consumer groups, released July 22 Green Scissors 2010, a report highlighting government programs and subsidies that are wasteful to taxpayers, harmful to the environment and bad for consumers.
Green Scissors 2010 targets four major areas for budget cuts: energy, agriculture and biofuels, infrastructure, and public lands.
…Friends of the Earth launched the Green Scissors campaign fifteen years ago to identify and eliminate environmentally harmful, wasteful federal projects. READ MORE
From the report: From the more than a century-old 1872 Mining Law that gives away federal land at $5 an acre, to $53 billion in lost oil and gas revenues from royalty-free leases given away in the late 1990s, to the $5.4 billion per year ethanol tax credit; there are dozens of reforms that can bring in hundreds of billions in valuable taxpayer revenue while helping to address our nation’s top environmental priorities.
…In addition to the tax credits for ethanol, the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandates the use of an increasing amount of biofuels each year, regardless of actual demand or economic and environmental impact. By the year 2022, the RFS will mandate the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels. The largest portion, 15 billion gallons, is expected to come from corn ethanol. This mandate, in addition to the tax credit, further subsidizes biofuel production by ensuring a market for biofuel producers, regardless of the financial or environmental costs of producing it. Congress should eliminate the RFS mandate and let corn ethanol and other biofuels compete in the market. Download Study
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