(ICIS) -- The US Senate on Thursday voted to end a USD 6 bln (EUR 4.26 bln) annual subsidy for corn ethanol. In a 73-27 vote the Senate approved an amendment that would kill the 45 cent/gal taxpayer subsidy for ethanol blended into the nation's gasolines.
The amendment also would end the 54 cent/gal tariff on US imports of foreign bio-ethanol, which has long protected domestic corn ethanol producers from competition. With the vote, the bipartisan amendment was attached to a larger bill, S-782, the Economic Development Revitalisation Act, a small-business development measure.
That legislation was expected to pass in the Senate, but approval by the US House of Representatives is not certain with the anti-ethanol measure attached.
There is strong support in the House for the ethanol subsidy, which supports ethanol production and corn farms in more than a dozen US Midwestern states.