Merkley has drunk deep from the biofuel kool-aid pitcher.  In a state where access to poverty health insurance is being decided by lottery, he helped lead the charge for massive state subsidies for biofuels, along with a state blending mandate.  Now there's a proposal for a coal-burning ethanol plant just inside the Oregon/Idaho border, so they can import both corn and coal to the state which has neither.

The 5% Project

I'm not sure what biofuels kool-aid you believe that Merkley has consumed.  He's well aware that some technologies are better than others.

A quote from the Daily Astorian:
Merkley said there are technologies that are going to be dead ends. "Corn ethanol is a mistake," he said. "The federal government shouldn't be subsidizing it, but there will be other technologies, that as we pursue them will be successful.

As for importing biomass to produce ethanol (from The News-Review):
[Merkley] said more work should be done to perfect the process and make it more economical to produce ethanol from the cellulose found in waste trees in the forests.

Merkley is much more committed to reducing our nation's dependence on oil than the incumbent, Gordon Smith, and that has got to be a key consideration when evaluating these two candidates.

If you entertain cellulosic dreams, why subsidize non-cellulosic -- corn, in other words -- ethanol production?  Why, having seen what happens when you subsidize A (you create a lobby that won't let you shift off A), would you create a state level subsidy for A, when claiming that what you really want is B?

It's not enough to say "wants to get off oil" -- oil is a problem that is solving itself.  The problem is how much damage do we do to our soil while we keep chasing the substitutionist fantasy (the fantasy that we can keep on trucking as before, only with different fuels), as Merkley and other liberals do.

The 5% Project

Good news!  A state senator in Oregon is coming to her senses on the ethanol mandate and vows to change it:

http://news.opb.org/article/2666-oregons-ethanol-mandate- ...

The 5% Project