people say vetc, and everybody is supposed to know what vetc is. well, it's the volume metric excise tax credit, and the tariff is effective july 1 so there are really two in there, two tariffs. those are two parts of the three-part triple crown of government support. refineries are required to use ethanol under the renewable fuel standard. the subsidy pays them to use that mandated ethanol, and ethanol, again, is protected by a very high tariff. now, i think we need to address this quickly because the effects of harmful and the costs are great, and at highest risks are increased costs for feed, corn, and other food. today, 39% of the united states' corn crop is used to produce ethanol. that's according to the congressional research service, well over one-third of the corn crop is used to produce ethanol. corn futures reached a record $7.99 a bushel last week so corn future prices are up 140% over 12 months. here you can see the rise from $2 in 2005 to 2006 going up over 2007, 2008, beginning to come down slightly in 2009, continues down in 2010, a

one-year extension of the volume umetric ethanol excise tax credit that for short goes by the acronym vetc. this has allowed congress and the domestic biofuels industry to determine the best path forward for federal support of biofuels. as a result of these discussio discussions, senator conrad and i introduced bipartisan legislation on may 4 that is a serious, responsible first step to reducing and redirecting federal tax incentives for ethanol. our bill will reduce vetec to a fixed rate 206% in 2012, 15 cents in 2013. it will then convert to a variable tax incentive for the remaining three years based upon the price of crude oil. when crude oil is more than $90 a barrel, there will be no blenders' credit whvment crude oil is $50 a barrel or less, the blenders' credit would be 30 cents. the rate will vary when the price of crudes is between $50 and $90 a barrel. when oil prices are high, a natural incentive shouldies if the market to drive ethanol use. it also would extend through the -- the bill would extend through the year 2016, the alternative fuel refueling property credit, the cellu