By Dan Modlin
Bowling Green, KY – Kentucky Agriculture Commissoner Billy Ray Smith
says lawmakers in Washington should support
efforts to expand ethanol production. Speaking
with Western's Public Radio, Smith stressed that
ethanol fuels can help to provide a valuable market
for farmers and can reduce the country's reliance
on foreign oil.
House and Senate conferees have been trying to
resolve differences over the issue in the new
Energy Bill.
Smith says Kentucky is ideally suited to benefit
from expanded ethanol production, because
by-products from that production can be
fed to livestock. The Agriculture Commissioner
describes Kentucky as "the leading beef production
state, east of the Mississippi River."