Ethanol. Right. Now.

Winning the future, with the help of ethanol

The American ethanol industry, comprised of farmers and small businesses, is ready and willing to help the U.S. “win the future” for the sake of our economic security, national security, and environmental protection.

President Obama delivered the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress last night, and we are grateful for his statement “clean-energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean-energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they're selling.”

The American ethanol industry couldn’t agree more.  If Congress and the Administration take steps to remove Big Oil’s status-quo grip on the fuel market, corn ethanol and advanced biofuel will finally have the certainty to supply safer and more affordable fuel choices to consumers while creating jobs for the U.S.  That is why the E10 blend wall must be overcome with an approval for E15 in all cars and why policies that deploy more Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) and blender pumps should be implemented.

We are pleased that President Obama declared “we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels,” and note that American ethanol, the most widely available biofuel, is already displacing approximately 350 million barrels of foreign oil – essentially eliminating the need for the U.S. to purchase oil from Saudi Arabia.

The President rightly pointed out that Big Oil companies are profiting on their own, let alone the billions in taxpayer dollars they benefit from each year.  Redirecting oil company subsidies toward cleaner, safer, and better alternatives – such as American ethanol – is the kind of investment that will create the domestic jobs we need for the economy to recover and grow.

Finally, because there is no silver-bullet solution to reducing oil use, we appreciate the President’s goal to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.  Nonetheless, there are already nearly 9 million FFVs on the road.  These FFVs can run on any blend of ethanol and gasoline, and should number nearly 20 million by 2015. 

Steps to ensure there are more FFVs and that the owners of these vehicles have the opportunity to use ethanol-blended fuel need attention this year .

Posted by: Brian Jennings, Executive Vice President, American Coalition for Ethanol

 

Administration trade reps: No plans to change ethanol import tariff

In a July 29 letter to U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk made the following comment about the existing ethanol import tariff:

"The Obama Administration is committed to developing our domestic biofuels industry in order to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports and increase our use of renewable energy sources.  There has been no change of policy with respect to the U.S. import surcharge of $0.54 per gallon on ethanol.  The Administration has no plans to seek changes to the import surcharge."

Read the entire letter here: http://grassley.senate.gov/upload/200907290001-2.pdf

President Obama on biofuels: "If Brazil can do it, there's no reason we can't do it"

President Obama was interviewed yesterday by Yankton, South Dakota's WNAX Farm Director Michelle Rook, speaking about the Administration's "Rural Tour" which kicks off July 1.  In the interview, the President spoke at length about biofuels and their role in the future of American agriculture.

When asked how big of a role he thought renewable fuels would play in the long-term profitability of American agriculture, President Obama replied, "I think it's going to be critical.  I think there's huge potential around biofuels... Ethanol has been a big boon to a lot of rural communities, really making the difference between profitability and not making a profit for a lot of farmers."

The President noted that next-generation biofuels will be important: "What we also are recognizing is that the key for us is going to be moving into the next generation of biofuels. How can we use wood chips, refuse, switchgrass, and the whole other set of biofuels standards, and how can we improve the efficiency of first generation biofuels.  And farmers are going to be critical to that entire process."

President Obama also cited the example of Brazil, which uses ethanol extensively to fuel its automobile fleet.  "If Brazil can do it, there's no reason we can't do it," the President said.

Listen to the radio interview in its entirety here.