U.S. House farm chief opposes climate change bill

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is unfair to the ethanol industry with its proposals on greenhouse gas reduction, the House Agriculture Committee chairman said on Wednesday, and he will not support any climate change bills.

"You're going to kill off the biofuels industry before it even gets started. You are in bed with the oil industry," Collin Peterson told officials from the Agriculture Department and the Environmental Protection Agency at a hearing on ethanol's impact on land use and greenhouse gases.

"I want this message sent back down the street. I will not support any climate change bill. I don't trust anybody anymore," said the Democrat from Minnesota.

A leader among fiscally conservative Democrats, Peterson is the first committee chairman to declare opposition to climate change legislation, an administration priority. He said he spoke to White House senior advisor Pete Rouse earlier on Wednesday about his dissatisfaction with the treatment of ethanol and concerns that a climate change bill would hurt agriculture.

"There should be no question -- the Obama Administration is committed to renewable fuels," said Heather Zichal, White House deputy advisor on energy and climate change, in a statement.

As an example, Zichal pointed to a request on Tuesday for material from scientists on how to calculate whether biofuels increase or reduce greenhouse gases when judged from field to fuel tank.

The request was part of a draft rule that aims to make production of corn-based ethanol more efficient and to increase production of advanced biofuels.

Corn ethanol has been criticized for contributing to higher food prices and indirectly causing greenhouse gas emissions by forcing forests and other lands to be burned abroad to create farmland.