How domestic fuel can fight higher gas prices was the focus of a hearing today before the Senate agriculture committee.

“Fundamentals and Farming: Evaluating High Gas Prices and How New Rules and Innovative Farming Can Help” featured a panel that included POET CEO Jeff Broin who testified on how the industry needs market access to help alleviate high gas prices by increasing ethanol supplies through expansion in cellulosic ethanol.

“The solution to keep gas prices lower is for American motorists to have an alternative to gasoline,” Broin said. “That alternative is available today – in homegrown, renewable ethanol.”

Broin also encouraged ethanol tax credit reform by redirecting those funds to build out ethanol blender pump infrastructure along with a requirement for Flex Fuel Vehicles and loan guarantees for dedicated ethanol pipelines. “With those elements in place, the oil industry would no longer enjoy exclusive access to 90 percent of the fuel supply,” Broin said. “The best way to lower prices for consumers is to allow ethanol to compete with oil in the marketplace.”

Listen to or download Broin’s testimony here: Jeff Broin testimony

Also testifying was Kansas livestock and grain producer Stan Townsend, a sixth generation farmer, who talked about the high cost of farming. “In 1988, when I started, a new tractor was $41,000. That tractor today is $281,000,” he said.

As a livestock producer, Townsend said he understands the impact of higher corn prices yet supports ethanol production. “Ethanol has provided the industry with the unique opportunity to incorporate the use of high-quality DDGs into our feed cycle, one of the many ways we can mitigate our costs and remain profitable,” he said.

Listen to or download Townsend’s testimony here: Townsend testimony