VOA标准英语2012--Cutting Ethanol Subsidy Might Not Impact Food Prices

Cutting Ethanol Subsidy¹ Might Not Impact Food Prices

 

With the U.S. ethanol industry consuming about a quarter of the nation’s maize² crop, many have blamed biofuels for rising food prices in recent years. The new year brought the end to a $6-billion subsidy supporting the industry, but that doesn't mean food prices will drop because of it.

Hereford Renewable Energy in the Texas Panhandle region is one of 200 plants across the country producing ethanol fuel from maize, which is called corn in the United States. Reagan Howell runs the plant. Before this job, he ran an oil refinery³.

“Honestly, I had not followed the price of corn until I got into the ethanol industry,” Howell says.

But with corn-based ethanol making up 10 percent of most gasoline in the United States, it is one of several factors pushing up the cost of food, according to Purdue University economist⁴ Wally Tyner.

“Ethanol is a driver of corn prices and has helped to pull up corn prices and all the other agricultural commodities because they are all linked,” he says.

In the United States, higher commodity prices have helped raise the cost of meat and dairy because livestock⁵ feed costs more. But the impacts have been felt most strongly in developing countries that depend on imported food.

Corn-based ethanol makes up 10 percent of most gasoline in the United States, which helps push up the cost of food.

Last year, with Congress under a mountain of debt and looking for budget cuts, a $6-billion subsidy supporting the ethanol industry looked like a prime target.

“It is expiring. And I give the ethanol industry great credit for allowing it to expire,” says Bob Dinneen, head of the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol industry trade group, who says he didn't fight to extend the subsidy because the industry has matured. “We never wanted to be tied to the taxpayer⁶ forever, and I think it is great that we are at a point where it has done its job. We are moving on.”

But experts say the main reason the industry has reached this point is not the subsidy, but rather a 2007 law aimed at increasing domestic production of renewable fuels including ethanol.

The law requires gasoline makers⁷ to blend renewable fuel into their products. Texas plant manager Reagan Howell notes ethanol is basically the only option.

“We are legally obligated to make ethanol," says Reagan Howell of Hereford Renewable Energy. "It is the only renewable fuel that is commercially viable⁸ right now.”

Gasoline makers will be legally obligated to use 50-billion liters of ethanol this year. That will use up more than a quarter of the U.S. corn supply, says Purdue’s Wally Tyner.

“We are not going to see a big change in food prices due to the elimination⁹ of the subsidy, because the driver of the policy today is the renewable fuel standard. That stays.”

Some advocates want to relax the renewable fuel standard until corn supplies are larger and less vulnerable to ethanol’s impact. But with oil prices high, gasoline makers will likely continue to find it profitable to add ethanol.

Though there is more to high food prices than ethanol, the competition between fuel and food is likely to continue.

1 subsidy   

n.补助金，津贴

参考例句：

• The university will receive a subsidy for research in artificial intelligence.那个大学将得到一笔人工智能研究的补助费。
• The living subsidy for senior expert's family is included in the remuneration.报酬已包含高级专家家人的生活补贴。

2 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

3 refinery   

n.精炼厂，提炼厂

参考例句：

• They built a sugar refinery.他们建起了一座榨糖厂。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

4 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

5 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

6 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

7 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。

9 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。