House Bill 2210 would give a 90-cent-per-bushel tax rebate to farmers who sell grain products, including corn, wheat and barley to the state's major ethanol production plants, including new refineries that will open near Boardman at the Port of Morrow on the Columbia River.

The bill raised the ire of the state's livestock industry, which is already paying higher feed prices for corn and other feed, including hay, due to the surge in demand for corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel source. However, a compromise bill that would exempt corn from the list of grains is being considered.

Industry leaders predicted that if corn growers received a tax credit, they would sell all their corn to the ethanol producers and force the livestock industry to buy all of its No. 1 feed source from out of state.

"The legislation would isolate Oregon's cattle industry," said Ron Rowen, a commodities procurement and risk management officer for Beef Northwest, which has feedlots in Ontario and Boardman. "Surrounding states won't have this issue to deal with. Oregon would become an island."

But backers of the biofuels bill say the state already is isolated by its lack of oil refineries and reliance on foreign fuel sources.

Source: The Bulletin