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Alternative fuels have been on the minds of more than corn farmers this year – especially in light of high fuel prices last spring and this fall’s war in Afghanistan.

Talk of developing a national energy policy, construction of an ethanol plant in Ohio and legislation to encourage more use of alternative fuels have brought ethanol to the forefront of many policy makers.

Most recently, Gov. Bob Taft announced during Farm Science Review the steps his administration would take to help Ohio farmers build an ethanol plant within the Buckeye State:

• Seek legislation to make changes to allow the Air Quality Development Authority to provide special funding and tax reductions;
• Provide incentives like low-interest and tax-free bonds, site improvement assistance, machinery/equipment tax credits, and water development assistance; and
• Explore providing tax credits to farmers to encourage their investment and allow them to have an equity position in an ethanol plant.

Since Taft’s September announcement, these proposals have been included in legislation sponsored by Sen. Larry Mumper, R-Marion, SB 144. OFBF has offered proponent testimony on this bill. Rep. Keith Faber, R-Celina, has introduced the same legislation in the Ohio House at HB 420.

Early in 2001, the Ohio Corn Growers Association, with support from OFBF and other agricultural organizations, announced a committee had pegged Leipsic in Putnam County as the ideal location of an ethanol plant in Ohio.

Three Ohio legislators have put together a plan that they say would promote responsible and effective energy conservation through the use of alternative and renewable fuels. The proposed legislation would:

• Allow the gasohol excise tax to be credited to the federal highway trust fund, rather than the general revenue fund (passed by both Ohio Chambers as SCR 25 sponsored by Rep. Timothy Grendell, R-Chesterland);
• Create the Ohio Gasoline Practices Oversight Commission to examine petroleum product supply and delivery within the state (introduced as HB 285 by Grendell);
• Develop nonrefundable credits for the production of renewable fuels and promote production of renewable fuels in Ohio (introduced as HB 284 by Faber); and
• Ban the use of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) within the state (introduced as HB 425 by Rep. Steve Reinhard, R-Bucyrus).

About the prospect of an ethanol plant being built in Ohio, Williams said: "As one of the largest users of ethanol in the country it only makes sense that we begin to produce it ourselves. … An ethanol plant represents the type of value-added agriculture that Farm Bureau continues to work to develop."