July 27, 2010
Wall Street Journal Response
The Wall Street Journal’s July 26th Opinion “Survival of the Fattest” bases its conclusions on a flawed CBO report that conveniently ignores the more than $300 billion that the United States spends annually for our addiction to oil. Every day, the United States economy bleeds away $1 billion to countries like Saudi Arabia Venezuela, and Nigeria – equivalent to $1,000 tribute by every man, woman and child in this country to the economies of foreign countries – for access to foreign energy.
The report also fails to consider the environmental consequences of our addiction to oil, although a recent study by the University of Nebraska found that more than 289,000 tons of carbon dioxide is emitted for the military acquisition of oil and spending on direct military activity associated with protecting our oil shipping lanes.
The Wall Street Journal fails to acknowledge the value of ethanol to our economy, our environment and our national security. Ethanol is a low carbon fuel that is at least 59 percent cleaner than gasoline and plays a significant role in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions – while cellulosic ethanol is not only carbon negative, but pulls additional carbon out of the air, put there by fossil fuels.
The ethanol industry also supports more than 400,000 good paying green jobs here in the U.S. that can’t be outsourced.
The only reason the ethanol industry needs government support today is because we are arbitrarily denied access to all but ten percent of the fuel market. By raising the federal blend level to 15 percent and eliminating artificial market barriers as outlined in the Fueling Freedom plan proposed by Growth Energy, we can create an open market where all fuels compete. Then, ethanol will continue to create jobs and displace foreign oil without any help from the government.
Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy
