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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Big Biofuels Bucks Behind SD Campaigns

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Wednesday, November 3, 2010   

PIERRE, S.D. - There were lots of big spenders behind the unprecedented amount of campaign spending in the lead-up to Tuesday's elections, but one industry in particular has had a major focus on South Dakota. A new report from finds the bio-fuels industry has spent millions in lobbying and campaign contributions in recent years, and the biggest recipients in each chamber of Congress are both from South Dakota.

Kate McMahon is bio-fuels campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth.

"Sen. John Thune, within the last two election cycles, he's received over $30,000 from the bio-fuels industry. Same thing with Rep. Herseth Sandlin -- she also received over $30,000 from the bio-fuels industry."

The lawmakers say campaign contributions don't influence their votes, but McMahon says both Thune and Sandlin have made votes that have been good for the bio-fuels business, but bad for South Dakota's environment.

"Corn ethanol is actually really bad for the environment. Everything from the amount of land that's necessary in order to produce corn ethanol, and what that does to compete with natural ecosystems, as well as food production, to the way in which that we're producing corn in this country. It uses a vast amount of chemical inputs and all sorts of things that run downstream."

The report details some cases in which legislators received several thousand dollars in contributions from groups such as The Renewable Fuels Association and National Biodiesel Board just a few days before introducing industry-friendly legislation. The report did not include large donations to independent committees that do not have to disclose their donors under a recent Supreme Court decision.

The report is at www.foe.org/sites/default/files/BiofuelsPoliticalCash.pdf.




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