Industry Efforts to Save Ethanol Tax-Credit Will Intensify

(Via CQ)

Ethanol industry groups said Wednesday that they can still win the fight to get an expiring tax credit renewed in the lame-duck session and build support for the corn-based fuel in the new Congress — despite the Election Day defeat of a key supporter.

In a conference call, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen said that the defeat of House Ways and Means Committee member Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., should not doom efforts on policies to promote ethanol. Dinneen said other prominent ethanol champions survived the election, including Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., and Sen.-elect Mark Steven Kirk, R-Ill. Dinneen also counts presumptive Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, among ethanol supporters.

Meanwhile, Tom Buis, chief executive officer of Growth Energy, another ethanol trade organization, said in a statement that he expects bipartisan support for ethanol to continue in the new Congress.

The focus for now, he said, is the lame-duck Congress.

Barton Sees Resistance to Renewables Mandate

(Via CQ)

A top contender for the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairmanship signaled Friday that efforts to pass a federal renewable energy standard would probably meet stiff resistance in the 112th Congress — raising the stakes for an ongoing Senate push for a lame-duck vote on the mandate.

Texas Republican Joe L. Barton, who is seeking a waiver from Republican caucus term-limit rules to reclaim the chairmanship he surrendered when Democrats swept to power four years ago, said the prospects for any electricity mandate would hinge on what energy sources are allowed to qualify.

“I think it would be problematic but it would be something that we would look at,” Barton said about the renewables standard in a telephone interview. “We would have to see how they defined ‘renewable.’”

Instead, he said, Republicans would be more receptive to an alternative proposal that would allow power produced from nuclear and “clean” coal plants to count toward any new mandate. “A clean energy standard, I’d be open to,” he said.

Stabenow, Conrad, Nelson Are Top Chairman Candidates

Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln’s defeat in Tuesday’s elections opens the door to a new chairman and a regional shift in the committee’s leadership.

Lincoln, D-Ark., was focused on protecting producers of Southern crops such as cotton and rice, which are top agricultural products in her state. She also was a champion of the poultry industry, a major business in a state that is home to Tyson Foods Inc. Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss is expected to remain the panel’s ranking member.

The leading contenders for the chairman’s gavel are Midwesterners Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, with Kent Conrad of North Dakota also a possibility if he chooses to give up his chairmanship of the Budget Committee.

The committee chairmanship will be important in the 112th Congress, as lawmakers try to write a new multiyear farm authorization bill. With a Midwesterner back in control, there is likely to be a stronger focus on programs that benefit producers of corn, grains and other crops important to the region’s economy.

Dems Face Tough Outlook in Congressional Elections in 2012

(Via National Journal)

It’s something of a professional hazard to make predictions this far out before the next election. Witness Karl Rove’s anticipation early in the Bush years of a permanent Republican majority, or James Carville’s boast in early 2009 that Democrats would dominate the political landscape for the next 40 years – a prediction off by 38 years.

But there are some telltale signs of what 2012 is going to look like, and it doesn’t take a crystal ball to understand that the short-term trends look dismal for congressional Democrats. Even if Democrats turn their political fortunes around, they’re still likely to lose seats in the Senate and will be hard-pressed to make inroads in the House, thanks to factors entirely out of their control.

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The numbers tell the story in the Senate: The president’s party will be playing defense, with 23 Democratic-held seats up for grabs. By comparison, only 10 Republican Senate seats will be in play, most in solidly Republican states. It’s the most lopsided disparity for any party since 1980, when Democrats lost 12 Senate seats.

And the map where all the top races are being contested is awfully daunting for Democrats. Of the 23 seats Democrats will be defending, eight are in Republican-friendly or battleground states: Nebraska, Virginia, Missouri, Montana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Ohio, and Florida.

Continue reading here.

MGEX Breaks Open Interest Record

(Via World-Grain)

MGEX, a designated contract market and derivatives clearing organization, announced on Nov. 8 that open interest recorded after the Nov. 5 trading session reached 77,344 contracts, topping the old record set on Oct. 8, 2007 by 539 contracts.

Open interest refers to the number of futures and options contracts not liquidated by an offsetting trade, delivery or expiration.

The exchange’s Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRSW) contract accounted for the majority of the open interest, consisting of 71,198 futures contracts and 5,882 options contracts. The remaining open interest is in the MGEX Soft Red Winter Wheat Index (SRWI) contract where 264 open positions are held.

“This is a very significant accomplishment for MGEX,” Mark G. Bagan, president and chief executive officer, MGEX, said. “Never before in our 130-year history have our market participants utilized our product offerings as much as they are today.”

Obama Appoints Williamson To Two-Year Term As ITC Vice Chairman

(Via Inside U.S. Trade)

President Barack Obama late last month appointed Irving Williamson to a two-year term as vice chairman of the International Trade Commission (ITC). His term in that position will expire on June 16, 2012, according to a formal notification sent from the White House to House and Senate leadership on Oct. 29.

In June 2012, Williamson will have two years left in his term as an ITC commissioner, which expires in June 2014.

Williamson is filling the slot left vacant on June 16, 2010 by fellow ITC commissioner Daniel Pearson, who ceased serving as vice chairman on that day as part of the legally required rotation of the ITC’s chairmen and vice chairmen between Republican and Democratic appointees.

Pearson, who was designated by congressional Republicans for his slot on the ITC, had to be replaced by a commissioner designated by congressional Democrats. Pearson’s term as an ITC commissioner will expire in June 2011.

As part of the mandated rotation for chairmen, Deanna Tanner Okun assumed the position of chairman earlier this year. She replaced Shara Aranoff, who was appointed by Democrats.

Okun will hold that slot until Obama appoints another sitting commissioner of the Republican party to that position, or until Congress confirms a successor to Okun and the president appoints that successor to be the new chairman.

Okun became ITC chairman because the White House had not appointed a chairman to replace her. In that scenario, the longest-serving ITC commissioner of the opposite political party from the previous chairman becomes the new chairman, which in this case was Okun (Inside U.S. Trade, June 18).

Okun’s term as a commissioner expired on June 16, 2008, but she continues to serve until a successor is named, as is customary at the ITC.