ATLANTA (Reuters) – The head of the largest U.S. farm group called on Congress to stop ruinous EPA “over-regulation” of agriculture and announced on Sunday a lawsuit against EPA rules to reduce Chesapeake Bay pollution.

Bob Stallman, president of the 6 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation, announced the lawsuit during a speech that opened the group’s annual meeting. He said the Environmental Protection Agency’s “over-regulation endangers our industry.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A direct payment subsidy that guarantees farmers $5 billion a year is the most prominent target in agriculture’s complex web of subsidies as budget-cutting Republicans flex their new legislative muscle in the House of Representatives.

Created in 1996, the subsidy is a point of dispute in farm country. Some farm groups want Congress to eliminate direct payments as part of an overhaul of farm policy due next year while others would keep it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. ethanol makers face a battle over reforming subsidies next year after current incentives are rolled over in the tax package signed into law by President Barack Obama on Friday.

The new law extends the 45-cents-per-gallon blenders’ credit worth up to $6 billion a year and the 54-cents-per-gallon tariff on imports through 2011. It also revives through 2011 an incentive of $1.00 per gallon for the smaller biodiesel industry which expired at the end of 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A mammoth government funding bill awaiting a Senate vote would cut off funding for a program that pays farmers to experiment with biomass crops.

Spending on the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, or BCAP, would be halted less than two months after the Obama administration unveiled rules for it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate on Wednesday voted in favor of a one-year extension of the ethanol tax credit and the tariff on ethanol imports at existing rates, despite complaints the subsidies are wasteful.

The extension was part of a massive bill extending the lower income tax rates imposed during the administration of former President George W. Bush. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The futures regulator acknowledged on Wednesday it will miss the January target for issuing a final rule on limiting the amount of contracts a trader can control in agricultural, energy and metals markets.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission will also propose phasing in position limits, putting them first on the spot month and then deferred months or positions in all months combined. The CFTC will unveil the details of its plan on Thursday in its almost three-year crusade to prevent a repeat of the 2008 surge in commodity prices to record highs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Dianne Feinstein said on Monday she will offer an amendment to a massive tax bill to cut the ethanol tax credit and import tariff to 36 cents a gallon each.

The current U.S. ethanol tax credit of 45 cents and the import tariff of 54 cents would be extended through 2011 under the tax bill. They will expire on December 31 unless the House and Senate agree to renew the biofuels supports.

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Dianne
Feinstein said on Monday she will offer an amendment to a
massive tax bill to cut the ethanol tax credit and import
tariff to 36 cents a gallon each.

The current U.S. ethanol tax credit of 45 cents and the
import tariff of 54 cents would be extended through 2011 under
the tax bill. They will expire on Dec. 31 unless the House and
Senate agree to renew the biofuels supports.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The tax-cut package under debate in the Senate on Friday would extend through 2011 the 45 cent a gallon ethanol tax credit and a 54 cent tariff on imported ethanol — the two major supports for the biofuels industry.

Without congressional action, they will expire on Dec 31. A test vote was scheduled for Monday for the bill. The House and Senate must agree on terms for a bill to become law.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A renewed tax break for blenders of ethanol should be included in tax-cut legislation being negotiated in Congress and the White House, a high-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives said on Thursday.

“Let’s bring ethanol to the table,” said Representative James Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House.