July 27, 2010
Washington Post Response
The Washington Post’s July 24 editorial, “Cornucopia,” was breathless in its unfair dismissal of what America’s grain ethanol industry has done, and what it can do, given the chance to compete against oil in a fair and open market.
Today’s U.S. ethanol industry supports more than 640,000 good jobs across the United States. And, if the federal government would once and for all raise its arbitrary cap on the level of ethanol allowed to be blended with gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent, another 136,000 jobs would be created. Raising that allowable blend would reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing more than 10 million cars from the road, and end the equivalent of a tanker-a-day of imported oil, most certainly strengthening our national security by making the U.S. less reliant on other nations for our oil. Ethanol is the only viable alternative to oil; not surprisingly, it is the oil companies that are attacking ethanol with the most ferocity.
America’s ethanol industry is eagerly moving toward cellulosic biomass as a feedstock – whether that is citrus waste in South Florida, wood scrap in New England, or municipal solid waste in California. Cellulosic ethanol is even greener than grain ethanol, and it is a 50-state solution because biomass can be found in every state in the nation. If we were to follow the Washington Post’s logic, we would continue a status quo policy that continues our addiction to oil – and sends as much as $300 billion a year out of the U.S. economy.
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
