July 15, 2010
Fueling Freedom is a Winner for Consumers, Taxpayers
Growth Energy’s top leadership unveiled an ambitious new plan – a complete new direction for the American ethanol industry – that would reshape federal policy for renewable fuels.
At its heart, Growth Energy’s Fueling Freedom plan would give consumers the power to choose their fuel at the pump. Right now, when someone drives down the street, it can seem like motorists have a choice, between BP, Shell, Sunoco, Hess, whatever, but the fuel is the same at each nozzle: gasoline derived from oil, two-thirds of which is imported.
So right now, consumers think they have a choice, but Big Oil has made their choice for them already, by controlling all access to the transportation fuels market.
If ethanol can access the market, ethanol can compete – and compete without the subsidy.
The Fueling Freedom plan would redirect the current subsidy away from the blender’s tax credit (where it provides an incentive to oil companies to blend ethanol) toward a tax credit for retailers to install blender pumps, to federal backing for ethanol pipelines, and to mandate that all autos sold in the U.S. be Flex Fuel Vehicles (FFVs).
If we can achieve 120 million FFVs and 200,000 blender pumps, then we will be well on our way to cracking open the market, and putting the power to choose in the hands of the consumers. Ethanol is 50 cents cheaper than gasoline, without the blender’s tax credit, so the economics are in ethanol’s favor. And people who base their choices on their values will reach for the ethanol nozzle because oil is getting costlier, dirtier and riskier to extract with every passing day – while ethanol is getting cleaner and cheaper.
And every gallon of imported oil we displace with domestic ethanol strengthens our national security, by ending our reliance on nations that do not share our values, and at times can be outright hostile to American interests.
Click here to be taken to our Fueling Freedom page, and learn more about the right path forward.
