Nebraska Farmers Union

1305 Plum Street • Lincoln, NE 68502 www.nebraskafarmersunion.org Contact John Hansen Office: 402-476-8815, Fax: 402-476-8859, Cell: 402-580-8815 john@nebraskafarmersunion.org

For Immediate Release October 17, 2008

Nebraska Farmers Union’s Top Ten Reasons

John McCain’s Anti Ethanol Policies Are Bad For America

Lincoln, NE. Nebraska Farmers Union says Presidential candidate John McCain’s anti ethanol policies are bad for U.S. farmers, rural communities, gasoline fuel users, the environment, and America in general. Nebraska Farmers Union’s list of the top ten reasons John McCain’s ethanol policies are bad for America:

1. Eliminating import tariffs on Brazilian sugar cane produced ethanol will not help make the U.S. more energy independent by swapping U.S. dependence on foreign oil for U.S. dependence on foreign ethanol.

2. Eliminating import tariffs on Brazilian sugar cane produced ethanol does not end ethanol subsidies. It does penalize U.S. ethanol producers while rewarding Brazilian ethanol producers who continue to utilize the wide range of substantial Brazilian ethanol subsidies.

3. Eliminating Brazilian tariffs on sugar cane produced ethanol will cause, not end ethanol market distortion. It will simply force domestic U.S. ethanol producers located in rural U.S. communities to unfairly compete against heavily subsidized Brazilian ethanol.

4. Eliminating U.S. federal ethanol incentives will not eliminate the well greased, long standing, heavy duty, institutionalized oil and fossil fuel production incentives like the oil depletion allowance.

5. Eliminating U.S. federal ethanol incentives will put the U.S. ethanol industry in financial jeopardy, which will cause grain prices to further collapse, which will set off a major economic meltdown in rural America which will dry up local, state, and national tax revenues while dramatically increasing a wide range of taxpayer financed costs to deal with the far reaching collateral economic damage.

6. Eliminating U.S. federal ethanol incentives will jeopardize domestic supplies of ethanol, which economists estimate could cost U.S. gasoline users 40 to 50 cents per gallon in higher base prices for all gasoline if ethanol is no longer included in the domestic gasoline supply.

7. Eliminating U.S. federal ethanol incentives and tariffs will send the message to future financial investors to never invest in risky new renewable energy production because the federal government can no longer be trusted to keep its word, dooming future renewable energy efforts for years to come.

8. Eliminating U.S. federal ethanol incentives and tariffs will allow the already too powerful and rich oil companies to effectively kill off their new renewable energy based competition, expand their monopoly stranglehold on U.S. markets and consumer pocketbooks, and cause the oil cartel to become even bolder in their efforts to highjack federal energy policy to their advantage.

9. Eliminating U.S. federal ethanol incentives and tariffs will be bad for the environment because it will increase the release of already sequestered carbon into the environment and atmosphere, increasing global warming and harmful tail pipe emissions.

10. Eliminating U.S. federal ethanol incentives and sugar cane based Brazilian import tariffs will reduce U.S. net farm income, cause rural investors to lose their money, rural workers to lose their jobs, grain farmers to lose their new profitable markets, and livestock producers to lose their lower cost ethanol based feed supply while increasing rural depopulation, poverty, U.S. federal farm program costs and the price of gasoline for U.S. domestic gas users 40 to 50 cents per gallon.

John Hansen, Nebraska Farmers Union President concluded “Outsourcing ethanol production will not work any better than outsourcing oil production and manufacturing has for America. Brazilians should rejoice over John McCain’s ethanol policies. They will help Brazil. Americans should reject John McCain’s ethanol policies at the ballot box. They will hurt America. We simply cannot afford them.”